45 degrees. No, that’s not the temperature in Fahrenheit. It’s the angle at which people have to walk in this wind just to keep upright in Orkney. If there’s ever a still day, there must be people falling over all over the Islands, with nothing to keep them upright. → 3 July, 2016
I’ve spent two entire days of my life crawling up the seashore measuring the height and diameter of limpets. The conclusion? Limpets …
On board.
The MV Varagen was built in Selby in 1989 and weighs 928 tonnes unladen. I’m currently thanking Archimedes that it floats.
The Italian Chapel on Orkney’s tiny island of Lamb Holm is so fragile. These are not bricks; this is not plaster; those …
Oh let men, overcoming individual and national egoisms, recognise themselves as brothers, may they refrain from discord, may they love and help one another…
Orkney’s Italian Chapel was completed in 1944. Stonemason Domenico Buttapasta laid cut and polished stones in Roman numerals to celebrate its completion. …
The Earl’s Palace in Birsay was built between 1569 and 1579 by Robert Stewart, the illegitimate son of King James V of …
A rock arch on Westray, at Backarass.
Beware of Bull? That’s strange. I didn’t see any politicians on the way here.
Westray is full of wonderful rock pools. There are over 1,000 species of Sea Anemone on Earth. This looks like Actinia equina. …
We are in Moena in northern Italy at the book launch for La Chiesetta Della Pace – Orkney’s Italian Chapel by Philip …
Coriolano ‘Gino’ Caprara and Roberto Pendini were Italian prisoners of war in Orkney. They helped build the Churchill Barriers which created causeways …
Roberto Pendini was held prisoner on the Orkney island of Lamb Holm during the Second World War and worked as part of …
I’m spending time with Coriolano ‘Gino’ Caparara. He’s now 96 and as smart and as funny as he ever was. He talks about his experiences as a prisoner of war held by the British in Orkney as if they were yesterday when “I learned English 70 years ago,” he says “And I never get chance use it.”
Bistort in flower in the garden at Einar.
It’s a thrill to fly over Westray and see everything from a completely new perspective. I recognise the Wheeling Steen gallery below.
I think the rain may have been getting in, don’t you?
The scientific name of the beautiful Groatie Buckie is Trivia arctica. Its name comes from the Latin trivia, the plural of trivium …
These three limpets are living on the edge. Their shells have been buffeted and battered so much by stones carried by the …
I’ve always loved the Westray beach with “The really big pebbles.” I recently discovered that a pebble can’t be any bigger than 64 mm. I think this one must count as a cobble.
Fulmars historically bred on the isolated island of St. Kilda. They spread into northern Scotland in the 19th century, and to the …
If you ever feel as if what you do makes no difference, as if you’re up against overwhelming odds or pushing against …
I’m standing at the base of the Kitchener Memorial in Birsay on the mainland of Orkney. It’s a beautiful crenelated stone tower …
This limpet has the best hair colour – a green fringe of seaweed. Beautiful.
I can also see a ghostly space among the barnacles where a companion limpet used to be. Limpets live 10 to 20 years. That one has gone to its watery grave.
The sea spray at Grobust has an abstract expressionist moment, frozen at 1/1,600th of a second.
There’s just time to say goodbye to Grobust on our tour round the Island.
