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 …
No Vehicles
A classic Volkswagen Campervan at Yesnaby.
Einar and the Northern Lights
There’s a fluorescent green ring encircling the Earth tonight made by charged particles from a solar wind. As if the milky way …
Weathered sculpture at St Magnus Cathedral
What was this sculpture originally do you think?
Celebrating Einar at St Magnus Cathedral
Einar, or Torf-Einar as he is sometimes known, is celebrated in this wonderful stained glass window at St Magnus Cathedral.
Starfish
She wishes she could find a starfish here; I go looking for one and find one. She thinks it’s because she wished for it; I think it’s because I looked for it.
Sea Urchin
Spotted a Green Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis at the Bay of Skaill.
Pincer movement
A Hermit Crab emerges from its shell, pincers first; it’s just like me getting out of bed in the morning.
The plane arrives at Westray airfield
We’re sitting in the waiting room at Westray Airfield. I was tempted to say Airport rather than Airfield, but I’m not sure …
Fulmar sunset flypast
A ragged-tailed Fulmar is alive to every variation in the breeze as the sun sets at Noup Head.
Lighthouse in the rain
Noup Head lighthouse on Westray reflected in a puddle of rain.
Letting go of your own shadow
When the plane from Westray takes off I’m just over the wheels and I see us let go of our own shadow, …
Gannets fly past while the sun sets at Noup Head
The evening is idyllic. Sunshine, hail, rain and a double rainbow in just five minutes. The gusty wind means the Gannets are …
Wedding flowers
The wedding at St Magnus Cathedral had a beautiful vintage car and these wonderful flowers.
Reading the Runes at KOI
It’s time for a day trip to the bright lights and the big city of Kirkwall. That means either an hour and …
Rain Bows
I shout into the wind that I can see rain heading over the sea towards us. I’m wrong; it’s hailstones.
“Write an essay on colour in animals,” they said.
At school I chose to take Geography A Level and due to the intricacies of the timetable, which only one man was …
Finally, the truth about Orkney Skies
There’s a wonderful Orkney Sky Facebook Group which I joined a little while ago. It’s got over 2,500 members and some really …