Research students from three universities – Heriot-Watt, Robert Gordon, and UHI – share news of the progress of their work, hosted by Dr Mike Bell of Heriot-Watt University’s International Centre for Island Technology in the Stromness campus with its views out across the harbour to Graemsay, Hoy and Scapa Flow. ...
”Although just a small hill, the views from the top of Gruf Hill are absolutely stunning on a clear day, with visibility stretching right over Scapa Flow to mainland Scotland.”
An opportunity to learn the basic elements of the art, as artist Lin Chau leads you through the process of mould and deckle making, preparing plant pulp fibre, pulling a sheet and couching it, then pressing the paper. The core ...
Rising sea levels with coastal flooding and population movements inland, over-exploitation of resources like water and biomass, increasing pollution and sediment discharge … How do we cope? Look for nature-based solutions, says Roger Crofts, see the coast as part of a bigger system and plan holistically ...
... where Dr Martin Braddock will tell us about the extreme conditions under which living creatures can flourish – and why that means we should expect to find life elsewhere in the universe. We’ll also be joined by mountaineer and photographer Tristan Cameron-Harper to tell about his Orkney travels.
Calling all small residents of Planet Earth, and their parents, and grandparents too - Mr Boom is back! His spaceship is on its way to make a landing for a Science Festival singalong. “I’m a children’s one-man band, and I live up here on the moon in my imagination!”
It can be lying rusted in a field or shed … and then in the skilled hands of a member of Orkney Vintage Club it can after much time and care become a loving-restored car, motorbike, tractor or engine. Club members invite you in to see and hear about examples of restoration, and to see ...
Join Vassilios Spathopoulos of Glasgow International College on a journey around the world and into the past, to learn the secrets of celestial navigation used by ancient travellers. The Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Vikings and the Polynesians will teach you how to use the stars, sun and moon to find your way across the sea. ...
Formed just over 350 years ago, the Hudson’s Bay Company had a trading monopoly over a vast area of North-West Canada, rich in Arctic furs. Its ships regularly called in to Stromness for supplies and workers, and the resulting income gave a huge boost to Orkney’s ...
The Atlantic voyage from Stromness, plus the harsh environment, could cause serious health problems, such as scurvy, for Hudson’s Bay Company workers. They had doctors and apothecary chests but, as Dr Winona Wheeler of the University of Saskatchewan ...
The world’s oceans offer some of the greatest mysteries on our planet, and the deeper you descend into them, the more fascinating these mysteries become. In this workshop you will be able to explore a model deep-sea landscape, using a Zoom link to control a submersible rover, complete with viewing ...
Music from the band to round off the summer.
A radical theory of evolution comes from a remarkable man who died a century ago. Mutual aid, said Peter Kropotkin, not competition, was the key to survival. His ideas took shape in years of studying animal behaviour in Siberia’s -40ºC winters ,...
It’s 100 years since a Scotswoman with a love of Orkney went to teach English in the then recently established University of Ljubljana in modern Slovenia. She was Fanny Copeland, daughter of Scotland’s 3rd Astronomer Royal. Her visits to Orkney ...
Join us for an informal evening gathering online. You can chat with some of the speakers about the talks of the day or indeed open up discussion on any topic. You can find out more about the Festival and Orkney itself, open up new discussion, or listen to some interesting stories.
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.
