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Like the Corn Cut Down by the River
Gallery

Like the Corn Cut Down by the River

Like the Corn Cut Down by the River

Music Channel, OISF 2018

Sung by Sheena Wellington and the composer, Lorcán Mac Mathúna, The Walls of Dublin rounded off Like the Corn Cut Down by the River, the story of the battle of Clontarf...

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From childhood tinkering to gravitational waves
Gallery

From childhood tinkering to gravitational waves

From childhood tinkering to gravitational waves

OISF 2017, Play OISF Video, Video 2017

Had Prof. Ron Drever lived just a few more months this year, he would almost certainly have been awarded a share of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics, for his part in one of the greatest scientific achievements of all time, the discovery of gravitational waves.

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Alamein
Gallery

Alamein

Alamein

Music Channel, OISF 2017, Play OISF Video, Video 2017

From the story of 'Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein' in the 2017 Orkney International Science Festival comes this song with Andy, Lewis and Chris.

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Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein
Gallery

Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein

Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein

OISF 2017, Play OISF Video, Video 2017

At the second battle of el-Alamein, where the Allied artillery was the only protection for the slow infantry advance through a vast minefield, Signalman Bill Sutherland from Orkney kept up the flow of targeting information from the front line to the guns for forty-eight

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Pepperwort and Parsley, Beeswax and Fulmar Oil
Gallery

Pepperwort and Parsley, Beeswax and Fulmar Oil

Pepperwort and Parsley, Beeswax and Fulmar Oil

OISF 2017, Play OISF Video, Video 2017

Mary Beith was known as a lecturer and researcher of great clarity on the traditional medicines of the Highlands.

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Maxwell’s Light
Gallery

Maxwell’s Light

Maxwell’s Light

OISF 2014, Play OISF Video

Images from two of the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell's favourite walks, near Parton in Galloway, where the Lair Burn and the River Urr run close to his house of Glenlair. Jennifer Austin's composition, Maxwell's Light, accompanies Selena S. Kuzman's film. The music is

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Hope’s Beautiful Daughters
Gallery

Hope’s Beautiful Daughters

Hope’s Beautiful Daughters

Festival Archive, Music Channel, OISF 2014

A new CD bringing together Scottish and Slovenian musicians and storytellers is to be launched in Orkney on 3 September.

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Brian Boru’s March
Gallery

Brian Boru’s March

Brian Boru’s March

Music Channel

The story of the battle is told in our online magazine Frontiers, and how the Norse king of Dublin and the Irish king of Leinster rose against King Brian and brought in the Orkney earl to assist them.

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Broad Street Saturday
Gallery

Broad Street Saturday

Broad Street Saturday

Play OISF Video, Video 2013

Broad Street in Kirkwall is the setting for some of the Saturday afternoon events in the annual Orkney International Science Festival. There is the Vintage Rally organised by Orkney Vintage Club, with music by the local jazz band, the Willowburn Valley Stompers, and visiting groups

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Europe’s Lost World
Gallery

Europe’s Lost World

Europe’s Lost World

OISF 2013, Play OISF Video, Video 2013

Hunters with spears scan an ancient landscape that now lies beneath the waters of the North Sea. The search for the lost world of Doggerland was the subject of two fascinating sessions...

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Back for the Saturday afternoon Singalong!
Gallery

Back for the Saturday afternoon Singalong!

Back for the Saturday afternoon Singalong!

Music Channel

We know little about Mr Boom’s origins other than he seems to have emerged one day from a crater on the Moon, but with Andy we know more, in particular that he comes from Wick, and that he is an accomplished musician, playing with various bands over the years.

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But Oh! the Stars in all their Beauty
Gallery

But Oh! the Stars in all their Beauty

But Oh! the Stars in all their Beauty

Festival Archive, Music Channel

The Mayfield Singers, George McPhee, Orkney string group The Sunday evening concert featuring the Mayfield Singers and organist George McPhee with guests is always a highlight, and last year it included the premiere of a new piece of music and the first performance

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Kirkwall City Pipe Band
Gallery

Kirkwall City Pipe Band

Kirkwall City Pipe Band

Music Channel

Kirkwall City Pipe Band hold their final parade of the season on Broad Street on the Saturday evening of the Festival, which this year will be 8 September.

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Three in a Bar
Gallery

Three in a Bar

Three in a Bar

Music Channel

Three in a Bar Three in a Bar came together to play at Festival events and in addition provide music at special events such as the North Ronaldsay Harvest Home and Burns Supper. Here they are with a

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New dance honours great Scot
Gallery

New dance honours great Scot

New dance honours great Scot

Festival Archive, Music Channel

New dance honours great Scot A NEW DANCE WAS LAUNCHED at the Festival to honour one of the greatest Scots of all time – who has had all too little recognition in his own land. James Clerk Maxwell is to science in Scotland

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Reasons for Hope OISF 2012
Gallery

Reasons for Hope OISF 2012

Reasons for Hope OISF 2012

OISF 2012, Play OISF Video

The 12th-century St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall was the setting for the lecture Reasons for Hope by Jane Goodall on 7 September 2012 in the annual Orkney International Science Festival.

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The Grand Tour 2012
Gallery

The Grand Tour 2012

The Grand Tour 2012

OISF 2012, Play OISF Video

This is a brief visit to four famous historical pipe organs in Germany, the Czech Republic and The Netherlands. High quality sampled version of these organs were played by Professor George Mcphee using the Hauptwerk Virtual Pipe Organ system.

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A Green and Medieval Afternoon 2011
Gallery

A Green and Medieval Afternoon 2011

A Green and Medieval Afternoon 2011

A Green and Medieval Afternoon, OISF 2011, Play OISF Video

Music and art, crafts and costumes, stories of people and ideas, all in the setting of the Earl’s and Bishop’s Palaces in Kirkwall, Orkney, in the 21st Orkney International Science Festival, September 2011.

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Maxwell’s Waves and Freeland’s tunes
Gallery

Maxwell’s Waves and Freeland’s tunes

Maxwell’s Waves and Freeland’s tunes

Music Channel

Maxwell’s Waves and Freeland’s tunes The music for the new dance Maxwell’s Waves was composed by one of the great figures in Scottish traditional music, Freeland Barbour. The dance made its first public appearance at the Island Ceilidh in the 2012 Festival, with guidance

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Chemistry Show 2010
Gallery

Chemistry Show 2010

Chemistry Show 2010

OISF 2010, Play OISF Video

The Flashing and Banging Chemistry Show lived up to its name in the 2010 Orkney International Science Festival, under the direction of Prof. Donald MacPhee of Aberdeen University.

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For A’ That 2009
Gallery

For A’ That 2009

For A’ That 2009

OISF 2009, Play OISF Video

Part of the Homecoming Scotland year of 2009, the event For A’ That linked the message of Robert Burns’s poem of the same name with issues of social justice and environmental responsibility in the world today.

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ABOUT OISF

A science festival has a radical role in developing a creative climate for a region. Here is the story of how it began, and how Orkney was involved from an early stage in the concept.

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