SCIENCE FESTIVAL SERVICE
Virtual Event
Words, music and images from St Magnus Cathedral for a Sunday morning, with Rev. Fraser Macnaughton and the Cathedral Choir and organ.
Loading view.
SET FAIR FOR SWONA
Virtual Event
An opportunity to find out more about Swona, its seals and shipwrecks, as Katy Firth of Stromness Museum introduces an exhibition of 360 degree photospheres of the island, with the help of some of the people close to its wildlife and history.
WORKSHOP : BLACK GOLD – THE ART OF COMPOSTING
Virtual Event
It’s a way of recycling your own household and garden waste into some of the finest fertiliser and soil conditioner for your plants. The work is carried out by many, organisms and out of it comes something rich and alive – a mix of nutrients, bacteria and fungi mycelia. ...
WALK: ORPHIR’S WARD HILL
”Although the path is rough and steep in places, the walk is at a leisurely pace so we can take in the views and keep an eye out for wildlife. This is a beautiful area and the views from the top are well worth the effort. Walking can be rough and wet underfoot. Please bring a picnic.“
THE POWER OF THE WIND AND THE SCIENCE OF SAILING SHIPS
Virtual Event
Schooners, brigantines and barques, and the clippers which could reach speeds of over 17 knots – the tall ships sailed the world’s oceans, carrying cargoes from one continent to another, the fastest of them sometimes covering several hundred miles in a day.
JOIN US FOR LUNCH
Virtual Event
… which today will be in Birsay, where we go to see a memorial plaque unveiled to the great Orkney naturalist Rev. George Low, in the garden of the Old Manse, where he lived. We will hear more about his life and work, with some music as well.
TILLEY LAMPS, WELLSTOOD STOVES, AND WATER FROM THE WELL
Virtual Event
In the 1950s and 1960s the North Isles of Orkney lacked mains water and electricity and good piers for shipping. Mechanisation was driving agriculture forward, with the main crops still oats, bere and turnips, with a thriving egg industry, and houses were warmed by Wellstood stoves and lit by Tilley lamps ...
WORKSHOP: PHOTO-MICROSCOPY MADE SIMPLE
Virtual Event
Miniature digital cameras have opened up opportunities to capture and share both still and video images through a microscope. This workshop will introduce a range of low-cost DIY options for both formal education settings and as …
ORKNEY BROCHS TO IRON AGE VILLAGES – HOW JOHN HEDGES CHANGED BROCH RESEARCH
Virtual Event
John Hedges transformed our view of Orcadian prehistory. His discoveries of buildings around the broch at Howe led to a much wider understanding of Iron Age Orkney. His work, together with more recent work on brochs in Orkney and Shetland is described by archaeologist Dr Beverley Ballin Smith.
THE NESS IN ROCK AND STONE
Virtual Event
The archaeologists are back in action at the Ness of Brodgar this summer, with an audience worldwide wondering what may emerge next from the site. Meanwhile some fascinating insights are coming from the study of the finds, including the various stone artefacts, as excavation director Nick Card of the UHI Archaeology Institute team at Orkney College ...
WORKSHOP: MAKING A MICROPHONE TO RECORD ORKNEY BIRDSONG
Virtual Event
You need a parabolic microphone but, as Holly Peek of the RSPB in Orkney shows, you can make one for yourself out of simple materials. And then a whole range of Orkney birds can be listened to more closely and recorded.
THE GREAT ENGRAVER
Virtual Event
Born 300 years ago in Kirkwall, Robbie Strang loved to draw and dreamed of going to sea, and went to the grammar school, where the master was Murdoch Mackenzie, later to become the great mapmaker. Then came apprenticeship to an engraver in Edinburgh, and a romance which led to him joining the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie and etching a plate ...
EXTRATERRESTRIAL: WHAT WAS ‘OUMUAMUA?
Virtual Event
It wasn’t an asteroid: they’re dull and rocky, and often round, and it was shiny and elongated. It didn’t have a comet’s bright gassy tail. And it seemed to accelerate away from the sun as it left us, propelled in a straight line. Astronomers called it ‘Oumuamua, meaning ‘scout’ – and, says Prof. Avi Loeb ...
COMPOSING BY NUMBERS: JOHN CLERK OF PENICUIK
Virtual Event
The great Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who established the nature of light and laid the foundations for much of modern physics, came from a glitteringly talented family. His great-great-grandfather was Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, lawyer and judge, architect and landscape gardener, and accomplished composer ...
THE FESTIVAL CLUB
Virtual Event
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.
