Spirit of Orkney» Culture

Groundskeeper Willie – Heritage trail

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:47:13 +0000

With the shock announcement that Groundskeeper Willie, the fictional character from the hit tv series The Simpsons, has Orkney roots we wondered about his heritage.

The Simpsons Heritage Trail

In the episode entitled The Daughter Also Rises, to be broadcast in America on 12 February 2012, Groundskeeper Willie confides in Bart that his father was a ‘doonie’ and his mother was an ‘uppie’, in reference to the two teams in the world-famous Orkney ‘Ba game’.

Possibly a new trail could be devised for visitors to Orkney to experience the islands, but what should be included and what would be the route?

To get the project underway here are a few suggestions.

Let us know, via the comments area, places you think should be listed with Groundskeeper Willie’s history and heritage.

Where to start The Simpsons Heritage Trail?

For us, the start has to be on Broad Street, Kirkwall and the home of the Ba’ Game.

From here any visitor can then explore either of Groundskeeper Willie’s roots and get a flavour of the area.

To follow his fathers roots, as a Doonie, the explorer would travel north of St. Magnus Cathedral.

Walking in the opposite direction as an ‘Uppie’ the historian would re-trace his mothers family.

Family History

The Orkney Family History Society, based at Kirkwall Library, is a fantastic resource full of Viking and Norse genealogy.

With his striking red eye brows and full beard, it is highly likely that Groundskeeper Willie’ s ancestors are Viking, travelling over the water from Norway and Scandinavia .

His temperament may also be an indicator to his past, being unafraid to get stuck in to sort things out.

Where next?

Just for fun, what areas and places do you think are linked to Groundskeeper Willie’s history and heritage ? Add your comments below…Similar Posts:

Painting by AR Woods found in Canada arrives in Orkney

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:44:09 +0000

A painting by AR Woods, found in a box of junk at an auction in Canada, has arrived safely in Orkney as the hunt for the mystery Ness Battery artist continues.

A campaign to find more about a large mural at the Ness Battery in Orkney was launched in February.

Tower Bridge - by AR Woods

Since then the AR Woods mural has attracted attention from historical researchers around the world.

Global search

In July, thanks to an article on this website, Julian Branscombe, Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme (SFLPS) manager, was amazed to be contacted by Joan Hollander, of Toronto, Canada.

She had found a charming picture by AR Woods, and soon realised that this painting might be a vital clue to a very special story.

“I’d gotten the painting in a box lot and was first attracted to the frame poking out of the box,” she said.

“I saw it was solid, bird’s eye maple and that made my curiosity jump.

“Someone, obviously put thought and care into a painting, to frame it so solidly. And I was also intrigued by the subject matter.

We are really hoping that it [the painting] will spur someone to come forward with recollections of AR Woods
Julian Branscombe SFLPS

“The painting and frame were filthy, but ah, so are lots of beautiful things, until you look past the dirt.”

The oil painting features Tower Bridge, London and is thought to be by Gravesend-born artist, Albert John Rycraft Woods, who signed all his paintings ‘AR Woods’.

AR Woods in Orkney

Joan has gifted the painting found in Canada to the people of Orkney.

Julian said: “When the package arrived from Joan, I was just overcome with emotion. It feels so precious to be able to hold it.

“Now that we’ve got it, we are really hoping that it will spur someone to come forward with recollections of AR Woods, so we can find out exactly why he came to Orkney in WWII.

“However, we still need to establish the link between this artist and Orkney.”

Mr Branscombe added that the generous gift of this painting encourages his team to take the search to London, to see if there are any living relatives, or archive records, which indicate why this piermaster in his sixties might have come to Orkney in World War II.

Could the same AR Woods be responsible for the mural in Orkney and the painting of Tower Bridge?

Second painting found

The painting found in Canada is one of two that have come to light since the search was launched earlier this year.

A Brighton-based television script-writer, James Payne, also took up the challenge to find AR Woods.

He discovered a number of records of an AR Woods amateur painter, including a description of his painting at the 1932 Port of London Authority staff show as being “particularly noteworthy” (published that year in an edition of art magazine, The Studio).

James went on to find that an AR Woods painting of the Pool of London, his workplace as piermaster, was available and soon it was also on its way to Orkney.

AR Woods on display in Orkney

AR Woods was born in Gravesend in 1876 or 1877, and after a life at sea he worked for the Port of London Authority in the 1930s, through until his retirement in 1947.

Both of the known AR Woods paintings will be on public display at the Public Talk on Ness Battery, Past, Present & Future, which is being held in the Lecture Theatre of Stromness Academy on Thursday 8 December.

The talk starts at 7.30pm with military historian Geoffrey Stell speaking on Ness Battery: Defending Hoy Sound in Two World Wars.

The evening is free, and all are welcome – but come early to see the paintings.

The lecture theatre will be open from 7pm.

Do you know the history of AR Woods?

If you think you can help in the quest for more information about Mr Woods and how he came to be in Orkney please get in touch via our contact form or via the comments area below.Similar Posts:

Orkney Botanist Exhibition at Stromness Museum

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:04:48 +0000

A winter exhibition opening this month will celebrate Stromness Museum’s roots as the Orkney Natural History Society. ‘James Sinclair, the Botanist from the Bu’ celebrates the life a Hoy man whose love of plants took him from the Bu to Borneo.

James Sinclair Orkney Botanist

Exhibition launch

The exhibition will be launched at Stromness Museum with an evening of informal talks. Bea Watson will read from her highly commended Fereday project on her great-great uncle James Sinclair. John Crossley, Orkney Plant Recorder, will give an overview of the attraction of Hoy for plant-lovers in his illustrated talk ‘The island of Hoy: a great place for plants and botanists’.

James Sinclair wrote the chapter on Orkney Flora in the New Orkney Book. His interest in plants developed early, when he was a schoolboy, with his interest being encouraged by the Orkney botanist Henry Halcro Johnston. James discovered a number of plants which were new to Orkney.

He went on to Edinburgh University in 1932 graduating with a degree with honours in Botany. James then studied to become a teacher, teaching in Stronsay and Kirkwall. He collected plant specimens including algae, mosses and ferns throughout Orkney and by 1937 he had collected over 500 species and scores of varieties.

Royal Air Force

He joined the RAF in 1941. James made a collection of specimens of local plants in Burma during the war in Burma. After the war he joined the staff of Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden, then moving to Singapore to take up post of curator of the Herbarium there. He lived and worked in Singapore for nearly 20 years undertaking collecting expeditions in various parts of the Malay Peninsula also to Sarawak, Sabah and the Philippines. Characterised by his intense attention to his work, James excelled in botany becoming an authority on the custard apple and nutmeg families.

Although work took him abroad and he enjoyed his travels, his heart was in his native Hoy, and he intended to settle there after his retirement. Sadly, ill-health brought him home early. James Sinclair, born at the Bu, Hoy in 1913, died in 1968 and is buried in the Hoy churchyard.

This exhibition travels from the Hoy Kirk where it was shown as the first exhibition of the Hoy Heritage project. The papers of James Sinclair will be part of the Hoy Heritage digital archive.

On show for the first time is an artwork by Orkney artist Laura Drever, inspired by the walk ‘In the footsteps of James Sinclair’ which launched the exhibition in Hoy in July.

The exhibition launch, with talks, takes place on Friday 11 November at 7:30pm at Stromness Museum – all welcome. The exhibition will run until March 2012. Museum hours are Monday to Saturday 11am to 3:30pm.

Stromness Museum

If you want a glimpse into Orkney’s Maritime Past and Natural History, then Stromness Museum is a must. Since 1837, the museum has amassed a unique and fascinating collection, which has something for everyone.

The James Sinclair project is part of the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme, supported by the Scottish Government and the European Community Orkney LEADER 2007-2013 Programme, and also by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme will spend around £2.2 million over three years on 48 projects promoting and supporting the heritage – wildlife, landscape, cultural heritage, history and archaeology – in and around Scapa Flow and the South Isles of Orkney. The scheme has received £1.3 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with further support from Orkney Islands Council, the European Union, Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, the RSPB, trusts and private donations.Similar Posts:

Plaque unveiled for Orkney’s John Rae

admin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:07:38 +0000

An English Heritage blue plaque has been unvelied at 4 Lower Addison Gardens, Holland Park, London, is outside where John Rae, the Arctic explorer lived for 24 years, until his death in 1893.

English Heritage blue plaque for Arctic explorer John Rae. Pic English Heritage

The plaque was unveiled by bushcraft and survival expert Ray Mears.

John Rae was largely an unsung hero of Arctic exploration during his lifetime, and only relatively recently has his contribution to modern survivalist techniques been fully appreciated.

His expeditions in the Canadian Arctic saw him cover a remarkable 13,000 miles by boat and on foot and survey more than 1,700 miles of new coastline, filling in some of the last gaps on the world map.

As the twentieth-century explorer Vilhjalmur Steffanson noted, Rae far outdid his contemporaries “in miles, speed and comfort” and was, in exploration terms, “as new as Darwin”.

Rae was notable for having befriended the Inuit and used their survival techniques; they called him “Aglooka” meaning “he who takes long strides”.

Rae also identified the only north-west passage around America that is navigable without icebreakers, thereby signposting the end to a centuries-long quest. At the time, however, his having ‘gone native’ was viewed with suspicion, and he was unfairly traduced as the bearer of bad news about the grim fate of Sir John Franklin’s expedition.

Orkney links

Rae was born in Orkney in 1813 and studied medicine at Edinburgh before being appointed surgeon aboard the Hudson Bay Company ship Prince of Wales.

From 1834 he served as surgeon at Moose Factory, the Company’s post on James Bay, where he treated the local population as well as Company men. Having learned the rudiments of surveying, Rae was chosen to lead an expedition to survey of the northern coastline of North America in 1846-67.

More than 600 miles of Arctic shoreline were mapped; the expedition was also significant for its unprecedented success in living off the land through an Arctic winter, which Rae later described in his Narrative of an expedition to the shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847 (1850).

In search of the Northwest passage

The writer R.M. Ballantyne encountered Rae on this journey, and recalled him as “very muscular and active, full of animal spirits” and as possessing “a fine intellectual countenance”.

Arctic exploration was one of the biggest challenges of the age, and one of the most dangerous: it is to Rae’s credit that he lost just one man in his entire career.

By 1848 concern was growing as to the fate of Sir John Franklin and his expedition, who had set off to find the Northwest Passage three years earlier.

In 1854 Rae, who had joined two earlier search parties, encountered a party of Inuit who, through interpreters, told him of a group of Europeans who had starved to death, and produced artefacts that showed beyond reasonable doubt they were describing the Franklin expedition.

Aware that others were looking for the expedition in completely the wrong place, Rae hurried back to London and made a full report to the Admiralty, which included the Inuit’s harrowing accounts of evidence of cannibalism among the starving men.

Much to Rae’s dismay, this report was made public; it was met with hostile incredulity, not least from Franklin’s widow, Lady Jane Franklin, who memorably described Rae as “hairy and disagreeable”.

Even Charles Dickens waded in with criticism, and Rae was accused of returning only for the £10,000 reward on offer and derided for accepting the word of Inuit “savages”.

He almost certainly knew nothing of the reward, which he shared with his men, and thereupon retired from exploration in 1856.

Recent forensic work on the Franklin expedition appears to have vindicated Rae and his Inuit informers.

From 1857 to 1859 Rae lived in Ontario and married Catherine Thompson in 1860.

Retirement

They afterwards sailed to England and lived mostly in London thereafter, though they continued to visit both Orkney and Canada.

In retirement, Rae lectured extensively and was the author of some 30 articles relating to Arctic exploration, survival, flora, fauna and anthropology.

Elected to the Royal Geographical Societyin 1880, Rae gave papers to numerous learned institutions and served on the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s research committee on ‘permanently frozen soil’, or permafrost.

He died of an aneurism at his London home in 1893 and was buried in Orkney.

The navigable passage he identified through the Canadian Arctic is now named the Rae Strait; a plaque marks the approximate site of its discovery.

John Rae is remembered in St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney

Rae also has a plaque in Hamilton, Ontario, and fundraising is underway for the rescue and restoration of his Orkney ancestral home, the Hall of Clestrain, which is grade A listed (in the Scottish statutory list) but presently in a state of severe dereliction.

Number 4 Lower Addison Gardens, originally known as 2 Addison Gardens South, is the only surviving London address with a strong and proven association with John Rae.

The three-storey terraced house dates from very shortly before the Raes moved in there in 1869; the road was only half complete when they did so.

For an Arctic explorer from the Orkneys, London may not seem the most obvious place to retire, but he relished London and its connections to intellectual life.

After his treks in the Arctic, Holland Park was just a short stroll away for Rae from the learned institutions at which he lectured.

Rae was also a good shot and belonged to the London Scottish Volunteer regiment. Howard Spencer, English Heritage historian added: “When Roald Amundsen sailed the north-west route around America in 1903-06 he readily acknowledged his debt to Rae as a surveyor and a survivalist.

Rae paved the way for the explorers who walked in his footsteps and learned from the strong connection he forged with the land and its indigenous people.”Similar Posts:

Painting by A.R. Woods found

admin — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:07:46 +0000

Joan has been in touch, from Ontario in Canada, with details of a painting she thinks may be by the same painter as the mural at the Ness Gun Battery in Orkney.

Tower Bridge - by AR Woods

You may remember that towards the start of 2011, a worldwide search was launched to find more information about a World War II mural in Orkney.

Depicting rural England and painted on a mess hall wall, it is believed to be a reminder of home and is signed AR Woods.

Also signed by AR Woods is this picture of Tower Bridge in London. Joan wonders if this could have been painted by the same artist.

Finding the Tower Bridge painting

Joan moved to Ontario, Canada, from the US, a few years ago.

Being a purveyor of fine and not so fine used goods, she began attending auctions.

At a small farm auction, she purchased the Tower Bridge painting, initially for the frame and not for the painting.

AR Woods signature on the painting of Tower Bridge

Joan said: “The artist didn’t look like he/she had formal training at all, but clearly was fascinated with ships/boats”.

The signature AR Woods can be found on the bottom left hand side.

Similar painting style

Having a university degree in art and having studied art history, Joan thinks that the mural and the Tower Bridge paintings have been painted in a similar style.

One final comment

Any relationship between the paintings can not at this time be proved. However, having two painters with exactly the same name must be quite unusual.

If it helps any readers, Joan adds that written in pencil on the bottom of the inside of the frame is the following: ’7 BW 1949′. She has no idea to what this refers or what it could mean.

Further information

BBC News – Search to find Ness Battery artist

Island Blogging – Inside the Mess Hall

UPDATE – 20:17 BST – 3 July 2011

Since posting the article a few hours ago we have had a lot of interest from the internet and Twitter.

We have become aware of an article posted on a website called Mercantile Marine that sets out a little bit of background to the Orkney AR Woods.

This suggests that AR Woods was connected to the River Thames, and so could indeed be the same as the Orkney painter. However, little is know as to how he came to be in the north of Scotland.

If you can add to the story then please use the comments area below or via the contact us form

Here is the article
- Albert John Rycraft Wood a.k.a A.R. Woods – WWII service? - from user Ness Battery

We are now fairly certain that this is the same man as the author of the autobiography “I Guarded The Waterfront” published in 1942. Different editions have him as A.P.Woods or A.R.Woods.

Here is a summary of what we know.

A.R.J. Wood b. Gravesend 1877

Descended from a long line of Thames watermen, he was a piermaster for the Port of London Authority, after serving in the Merchant Navy on ships including the Ophir.

He enlisted in a volunteer regiment and became a TA machine gun instructor while still working as a piermaster in WWI.

Looking for help finding out about possible service during WWII which might have taken him to Scapa Flow and the Ness Battery. I wonder if he might have had something to do with any of the vessels, floating cranes, barges etc which we know originated on the Thames and ended up in Orkney.

He makes no mention of service during the second war, but we have to bear in mind his autobiography was written no later than 1942 – and we do not have a date for the mural, so still possible he saw service later than that. Also, he may not have been at liberty to refer to his service.

I have found many Albert Wood[s] from various sources but none quite match.

If you can add to the story then please use the comments area below or via the contact us form

UPDATE – 14:03 BST Mon 4 July 2011

We have just received the following note from the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme

This is so exciting. This is certainly by the same AR Woods that is our prime candidate for being painter of the Ness Battery mural.

The signature of this work is near-identical to that of the other painting by the AR Woods that worked for the Port of London Authority until 1947, and the painting is of a view he knew very well – he was Piermaster at Tower Pier in London.

We have not yet definitively linked him with Orkney during WWII, but seeing another work by this fine amateur artist takes us a step closer to solving this mystery.

It is wonderful to get this help from Canada! Thank you ever so much.

Julian Branscombe, Manager, Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme

julian.branscombe@orkney.gov.uk

Similar Posts:

Orkney Fish

admin — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:59:17 +0000

Orkney’s clear oceans are teaming with life and it comes as no surprise that fish and shellfish make up a huge part of the Orcadian diet.

A vital part of Orkney's economy

Orkney seas

Eat out in Orkney and you will find fresh fish and seafood always on the menu but the bounty of the Orkney seas is also in high demand in many of the World’s most prestigious restaurants.

Some of the finest London restaurants feature fish from Orkney.

The cool, clear waters ensure that lobsters, mussels and scallops grow slowly, building up great depth of flavour.

Although you will find the old favourites like haddock, herring and cod, you will also find the equally delicious wolf fish, witch and megrim.

Take it from me, wolf fish and chips is wonderful!

Buy local and fresh

Kirkwall hosts a local farmer’s market on the last Saturday of each month, where you will find locally grown produce and bounty from the sea. However, take a drive along the coastal roads and you will see little signs pointing you to where you can buy direct from the fisherman.

There are many fine fishmongers, smokeries and places to eat in Orkney and we have created Orkney-Fish.com to feature all that the seas around Orkney have to offer.

We will bring you articles, news and features from the fishermen, information for anglers and some tasty recipe ideas and details of where you can buy your Orkney seafood and great places to eat.

If you have any ideas for articles, want to have your say or are indeed one of Orkney’s dedicated fishermen, then please get in touch with us…we would love to hear from you.

Visit Orkney-fish.com

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Dr John Rae, Explorer

admin — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 20:01:01 +0000

Orcadian, Dr. John Rae was an intrepid explorer whose important discoveries were met with indifference and even derision.

Rae was born at the Hall of Clestrain in the parish of Orphir in Orkney, to estate manager John Rae, who later became the Orkney agent of the Hudson’s Bay Company. This company would play an important role in John Rae Junior’s life.

Dr John Rae, Orcadian Explorer

In 1829 John went to study medicine at Edinburgh University and graduated as a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in April 1833.

John’s two older brothers had already joined the Hudson Bay Company and in Summer 1833, Dr. John Rae followed suit, signing on as ship’s surgeon aboard the ship, Prince of Wales, bound for Moose Factory in Ontario.

He stayed here for ten years and whilst treating indigenous employees he became fascinated with their lifestyle and skills. The local Cree Indians taught him how to hunt and live off the land and he followed closely the crafts and skills of the local Inuit. He designed his own snow shoes and became skilled in their use. John Rae had a great respect for these people and their knowledge but this type of involvement with natives was frowned upon by the Victorian British.

His desire to follow this wild existence and the knowledge gained, allowed him to travel great distances and unlike his Victorian counterparts, he needed little in the way of supplies and equipment and few people in his support team.

John Rae developed an interest in surveying and over 2 winter months, walked 1200 miles through forest. This earned him the Inuit nickname Aglooka, “he who takes long strides.”

Rae went on his first expedition in 1846 and joined Sir John Richardson in 1848 to search for the Northwest Passage. In 1849 he was asked to join the search for the two missing ships of the Franklin Expedition, the results of which would seal his fate.

The local Inuit of King William Island provided Rae with much information about the fated Franklin voyage and how the expedition survivors had tried to stay alive by cannibalism. When Rae reported this to the British Admiralty, the gruesome details were leaked to the Press, causing shockwaves of disgust throughout Victorian society.

Franklin’s widow, Lady Jane Franklin was outraged at the thought of her husband being involved in such horrors and recruited many important people, including Charles Dickens to openly condemn Rae.

Rae was shunned by the Victorian British establishment. His discovery of the last link in the Northwest Passage Rae went unrecognised. To this day, the finding of the Northwest passage is incorrectly attributed to Franklin who lies in state at Westminster Abbey.

John Rae retired from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1856, and married in 1860. Later the same year he visited more islands of the northern hemisphere, whilst surveying the telegraph route of a transatlantic cable laid via Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland.

Rae rejoined the Hudson Bay Company in 1865 and undertook a final expedition as an explorer of the Red River for a proposed telegraph line from the United States to Russia. Rae then settled in Britain, dividing his time between London and Orkney.

In 1852 he received the Founder’s Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his Arctic explorations and was awarded an honorary degree by McGill College, Montreal in 1853 and another by Edinburgh University in 1856.

Rae was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1880 and became known as a forerunner in the field of Arctic survival.

Dr John Rae Memorial in St Magnus cathedral

John Rae died in London on 22 July 1893 from an aneurysm. His body was sent to his native Orkney a week later and was buried in the kirkyard of St Magnus’ Cathedral, Kirkwall.

His gravestone, like many others is fairly insignificant and well weathered but a skillfully crafted life size memorial has been placed inside the cathedral near the Rognvald Chapel.

Various geographical areas have been named after him;Rae Strait (between King William Island and the Boothia Peninsula), Rae Isthmus, Rae River, Mount Rae,Fort Rae and the village of Rae-Edzo (now Behchoko), in the Northwest Territories.

In July 2004, Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael introduced a motion to the UK Parliament, proposing recognition of Dr. John Rae’s discoveries and the acknowledgment the Rae and not Franklin was the first to discover the North West passage.

More information

Ray Mears’ Northern Wilderness
Orkneyjar.com – Dr. John Rae, unsung arctic heroSimilar Posts:

Orkney Beef Cattle

admin — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:55:49 +0000

Agriculture is one of the mainstays of the Orkney Islands and Orkney beef is renowned for it’s tenderness and full flavour.

Grazing on a summer evening

Cattle in this region need to be quite robust as Orkney summers are short, with temperatures often peaking around 18 or 19 degrees and from October, light is lost from around 3.00pm with sunrise at about 8.30am. Strong winds and driving rain are a feature of the fairly mild winters.

The Aberdeen Angus breed lends itself well to this region, maturing quickly to give a good proportion of fat to lean, with very little bone.

Although you will come across a quantity of pure Aberdeen Angus beef, the breed itself is quite small in stature and herds are often cross bred with Belgain Blue, Charolais, Limousin, Simmental and Beef Shorthorn in order to obtain a larger animal.

The Orkney Islands are also free from BSE and Foot and Mouth disease and the farmers pride themselves in the welfare of their cattle. The agricultural shows are a focus for the islands farming communities, culminating in the prestigious County Show which is held in Kirkwall during August.

Orkney beef cattle will be turned out to graze from May to October, then brought in for the winter, where they are fed on home produced silage.

Smoked Beef

Orcadians have smoked their meat and fish for many centuries and beef is no exception. There are local butchers who still produce their own Oak smoked beef.

More information

Orkney Livestock Assoc – a farmer led health scheme for Orkney farmers.

The Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society

Orkney agricultural shows – What’s on diary

Orcadian butchers – Orkney Food Trail.comSimilar Posts:

2010, Year O Orkney Dialect

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:53:49 +0000

The Orkney Heritage Society are making 2010 the Year O Orkney Dialect. They aim to raise awareness of the rich heritage reflected in the dialect and encourage its use in everyday life.

History of Orkney Dialect
The Orkneyjar website has some excellent information on old Orkney dialect and explains that;

“For almost 950 years – from approximately 800AD until the middle of the 1700s – the spoken language in Orkney was a variant of Old Norse known as Norrœna or Norn.
Remnants of this now extinct language can still be clearly heard in today’s Orcadian dialect – a dialect shot through with Norse words and turns of speech”.

Orkney Dialect Competition
Whit like? 2010 is noo officially the Year o Orkney Dialect! As part o this, wur runnan a poetry competition, details o which you kin fiind on this website.

If you are interested in aalso runnan sometheen as part o the Year o Orkney Dialect, then please get in touch, as a calander of events is being compiled.

Quite a bit of local interest has already been shown in this project, with Stromness Primary School creating a word waal where the children can see and learn to use dialect words in everyday speech.

If you have an interest in the old dialect words of Orkney (and Shetland), then the free downloadable ebook above will be of interest to you.

If you’re a bit more academically minded, then why not give the “Orkney Dialect for Beginners” evening class a go!

More information

Orkney Heritage Society
Year O Orkney Dialect on Facebook
Orkneyjar - Find out lots more information about the Orkney Dialect
Scots Language Centre - The network for Scots languageSimilar Posts:

Login’s Well – Stromness, Orkney

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:26:15 +0000

Two things limited the distances early mariners could sail, one was food the other was fresh water. Early sailing ships needed large quantities of both of these commodoties before any adventures could begin.

At first glance the well at the side of a road and surrounded by stone walls is not that impressive. However, once you start to read the engraved stone to the left of the well you realise you are standing in a very important place.

Imagine

Recreate the scene in your head of a bustling harbour scene. Large canvas clad ships tower above the house tops in the bay to your left.

Traders, porters and sailors going about their business making preparations. All around you the sound of carts scratching their way up the cobbled streets. The squeaking of hemp ropes passing over wooden pulleys loading cargo and the sloshing of water into wooden barrels.

Pitch fires burn at the harbour walls whilst sweaty men loading wagons compliment the smoke filled air you inhale with every breath.

Now look back towards the well and become immersed in the atmosphere of the 17oo’s.

Discovery

Stromness became the last port of call before the long voyage across the Atlantic for many vessels. Many Hudson Bay Company ships used Stromness for supplies and men until the early 1900′s.

Resolution and Discovery, Captain Cooks‘s vessels, both took on water and supplies in Stromness upon their return home following the failed search for the North-West passage.

It was during this adventure that Cook was killed on the 14 February 1779 in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii.

Stromness was the first home port to which the boats, Resolution and Discovery, returned to in August 1780.

Sir John Frainklin’s ships, HMS Erebus and Terror, also stopped for supplies in Stromness in 1845.

The well was sealed in 1931. However, it has since been reopened and a glass door installed so you can once more see the water.

Further information

The Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA)

Captain Cook Society

Papers mainly relating to the ill-fated Franklin Expedition in search of the North-West Passage on HM Ships Erebus & Terror (1845-7), and the subsequent expeditions sent to search for survivors or relics of the expedition. Also, some earlier letters from Franklin mainly to relatives and letters from relatives to or about him. Some items relating to the bicentenary of Franklin’s birth celebrated in 1986.

Identification of the Probable Source of the Lead Poisoning Observed in Members of the Franklin ExpeditionSimilar Posts: