Let there be light
The stained glass windows in St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall are beautifully done. This is one of them, Fiat lux, or ‘Let …
Fast Fulmar
This Fulmar was so fast without even flapping that it was nearly out of the frame before I captured it.
Better days
The diesel generator at Einar has seen better days. Have you still got one like this in your outbuilding?
“The North our home, the sea our friend”
The Coat of Arms of the Orkney Islands Council is displayed in the Orkney Museum. The gold ship on a blue background …
In Orkney, you pave your roof
I love the beautiful pattern and texture of this perfect flagstone roof on Westray. The chimney pot, however, may need a little …
Fulmar at sunset
The sun is already half-way down past the horizon when this Fulmar flies past, lit up with glorious low golden light.
Mud cracks, mud cracks everywhere!
Orkney is full of stone which shows fossilised wave patterns and mud cracks. Orkney’s geological history has been a complex one involving …
The Chart of the Seas – Orkney on the Carta Marina from 1539
Orkney Museum has a fabulous reproduction of a beautiful and seriously unscientific map of Scandinavia showing the islands of Orkney, which was …
Ezekiel in St Magnus Cathedral
In St Magnus Cathedral they have a beautiful stained glass window dedicated to Ezekiel. Nowadays he would probably have a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a psychiatric nurse and a social worker on his team and be treated with antipsychotic medication to control his symptoms.
More guano than Peru
Fortunes were built on the stuff. Entire estates and magnificent country houses like Tyntesfield near Bristol were funded by it. People are …
The whites of their eyes
Humans have evolved as social animals and we pick up on incredibly subtle non-verbal cues from each other. Unlike most other primates …
Yesnaby Castle
Yesnaby Castle is a proper sea stack. Many people seem to think that Yesnaby Castle is a smaller version of the Old …
Old and new
St Magnus Cathedral is slowly weathering away. Beautiful new carvings have been inserted to replace some of the most weathered parts. Their …
A world in miniature
If you’re ever struggling to think of a present for a young child, buy them a bug pot and a magnifying glass. …
Good Gannets above!
Have you ever wondered how Gannets manage to dive into the water at such incredible speeds and yet seem to survive without …
The view from inside St Magnus Cathedral’s clock face
The inside of St Magnus Cathedral is just as fascinating as the outside, especially if you book yourself on one of the …
One of my favourite objects
One of my favourite objects in the Orkney Museum is this neolithic pestle mace head. It makes me wonder just how fabulous …
All hail
It’s a beautiful blue sky; so blue we are tempted up to Noup Head along the rutted track and past the farm …
Swallows – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
Swallows seem unearthly. Their flight is so elegant, so fast and so controlled they seem as if they inhabit a different world. …
An early map of Orkney
I’ve been looking at too many early and unscientific maps of Orkney because as soon as I see this moss on a …
Orkney Museum Staircase
I love Tankerness House which houses the Orkney Museum. Here are a couple of views of the staircase.
A beautiful whalebone plaque from an Orkney Viking boat burial
One of the most remarkable features of current archaeology is just how much there is still to discover still lying a few …
Giving me the sly eye
A seal at Pierowall is wary of me and watches out of the corner of its eye.
A peedie guide to Charles Tait
It was great to meet Charles Tait, the author of The Peedie Orkney Guide Book: What to Do and See in Orkney …
The Twa Corbies
The Twa Corbies is a favourite ballad of mine, so I’m delighted to see two Ravens on the cobble and pebble beach …
Somewhere between mild irritation and death
Washed up on the shore at the Bay of Skaill is this beautiful jellyfish.
All aboard
The P&O cruise ship Arcadia in the Hatston terminal at Kirkwall in Orkney. The cruise visitors are a mixed blessing for the …