On the west side of Otterswick Bay in Sanday, noted Walter Traill Dennison, and only visible with the the low spring tides – are the remains of many trees. And, he observed, Sanday folklore speaks of an old woman who asked the question: “What has become of the woods of Otterswick?” Associate Professor Scott Timpany of UHI Orkney has been studying pollen and plant macrofossils from the site, to build up a picture of an ancient forest and the probable date when it was drowned by the sea.

Tom Muir, who edited Walter Traill Dennison’s Orkney Folklore and Sea Legends for republication, will set the scene.