THIS YEAR IS THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY of the birth of Dr John Rae, arguably the greatest Arctic explorer of all. It was Rae who solved the two great mysteries of 19th-century Arctic exploration – the fate of the Franklin expedition and the existence of the Northwest Passage. Through searching through thousands of miles of an unexplored land of ice and snow, travelling through bitter weather in temperatures that fell to minus 50 degrees C, he found evidence for the loss of Franklin and his men and also the last link in the Northwest Passage – Rae Strait. It was through Rae Strait that Roald Amundsen sailed, half a century later, when he made the first transit of the whole Passage.
We will feature talks on the Arctic and on Rae, the film Chasing Ice, and two exhibitions, one on polar scenes and the other on John Rae’s favourite places in Orkney and in Canada.
There is more on Rae in our new online magazine, Frontiers.
The story will be told on the opening day of the Festival, and you can get some advance information on the subject in Frontiers magazine. Other subjects will include astronomy and archaeology, mathematics and marine science, films and food.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW WEBSITE! This is one of series of developments taking place over the weeks ahead. We’ll be announcing our full programme on 4 June and will have it posted up on the site in full. This is earlier than we’ve been able to do in previous years, due to assistance from many participants. In the meantime we have some advance information in our Programme section. Fuller information on some aspects of the Festival will be in the next issue of our new online magazine Frontiers, which will appear in mid-June.