Print This Post
Stromness ‘Liberty’ Cannon
Rusting at the edge of the sheltered harbour of Stromness is a cannon said to be a relic of the Anglo-American War.
Trade routes and access to the vast grain fields of Canada became the trigger for war and the shipping lanes between Canada and Britain came under constant threat from the US Navy.
Canada was a [...]
Print This Post
Fresson Cairn, Kirkwall
Tuesday, 8 May 1933 marked the start of what would become the longest continuously-operating scheduled air service in Europe and probably the world. It was to be called Highland Airways.
Commemorating this adventure, started by Captain Ernest Fresson, is a cairn overlooking the current Kirkwall airport.
Unveiled in 2008 by Stephen Hagan, the convener of Orkney Islands [...]
Print This Post
Broch of Gurness
February 24, 2010 by admin
Filed under Archaeology, Featured
The Broch of Gurness in Orkney is one of the most outstanding surviving examples of an Iron-Age settlement in northern Scotland.
Scottish Brochs
There are over 500 brochs, all unique to Scotland, with many of them scattered around the highlands and islands.
Unlike other brochs, the ones in Orkney were often surrounded by villages and the Broch of [...]
Print This Post
Rendall Doocot
October 21, 2009 by admin
Filed under Buildings & Architecture, Featured
The Rendall Doocot (dovecote) was built in 1648 on the Hall of Rendall estate to house pigeons.
Doocot is the Orkney word for Dovecote and the Rendall Doocot in Evie, is built in the Beehive style, the oldest type in Scotland, built in a cone shape with four string courses of stones or slates protruding from [...]
Print This Post
HMS Royal Oak 70th Anniversary
On 14th October 1939, HMS Royal Oak was sunk by a German Torpedo in Scapa Flow, off the southern coast of Orkney.
Scapa Flow had been a strategic Naval base since 1905, protecting Britain from German invasion via the eastern island inlets from the North Sea. With an area of about 156 square kilometres, it is [...]
Print This Post
Covenanters Memorial, Deerness, Orkney
Situated on a commanding peninsula with steep cliffs to one side and rolling fields to the other, is the Covenanters Memorial at Deerness on the mainland of Orkney.
Made of brick and standing possibly 10m tall, the monument at Deerness is around 300m from where a boat full of covenanters sank during a storm.
The Scottish Covenanters [...]
Print This Post
The Churchill Barriers
Arrive at St Margaret’s Hope on the Island of South Ronaldsay and head North on the A961 to Kirkwall.
This drive will take you over the incredible four causeways linking the Orkney islands of South Ronaldsay, Burray, Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm.
A total length of 1.5 miles (2.3km). The barriers were originally built in 1940 as [...]
Print This Post
Orkney’s Italian Chapel
A labour of love, exquisite artistic skill and craftsmanship transformed World War II nissen huts into a stunning Italian chapel on the isle of Lambholm.
The distinct white and red facade of the little church on Lambholm has become affectionately known as The Italian Chapel.
Prisoners of war, captured during the North African campaign of the Second [...]
