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  2. Sunday 4 September

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WALK: YESNABY TO STROMNESS

A unique opportunity to walk the coastline from Yesnaby back to Stromness without having to worry about transport! We will meet in Stromness at 9.30am where a minibus will be waiting to take us to Yesnaby. Our walk will follow the coastal path taking in the spectacular views of Orkney’s west coast cliffs. Along the way we will keep an eye out for any wildflowers, birds, insects and cetaceans. We will take finish our walk back in the centre of Stromness where we will be reunited with our vehicles. ...

STROMNESS SHORELINE RAMBLE

Stromness Museum

See some of the Museum’s natural history collection and then set off to the Point of Ness and beyond to see seashells and stromatolites, granite rocks and wildflowers. On the way there are stories about famous naturalists such as Hugh Miller and Robert Rendall, and views across the harbour from the cannon and across Hoy Sound from the old Volunteer Battery by the shore.

£10

SHORE AND SEAWEED WORKSHOPS

From Kirkyard car park, Warebeth, Stromness

Come out to the West Shore for four family-friendly activities. Learn to identify seaweeds and make your own seaweed artwork. Forage for pigments and mark-making materials – and for seaweeds and plants, and build a beach fire to cook a foraged lunch. Search for fire flints and clays, and make your own Orkney shell farm game. Hosted by artists and foragers Katherine Diaper, Rebecca Marr and Fiona Sanderson, and marine ecologist Dr Andrew Want.

£8 – £12

SCIENCE FESTIVAL SERVICE

St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall
Hybrid Hybrid Event

Conducted by Rev. Fraser Macnaughton, with the St Magnus Cathedral Choir. “Whether you come from north or south, east or west, whether you live here or are a visitor, are here for the first time, or are here regularly… you are welcome to our worship,” they say. You can find out more on the congregation’s website, with information on the history of the Cathedral as well. ...

GAAN NORT

Peedie Kirk Hall, Kirkwall

Around the North Isles, from Sanday to Stronsay, Westray to Eday, and in North Ronaldsay and Papay too, farmers have been looking back at the changes through their lifetimes in recorded interviews with Dr Tom Rendall and Ailsa Seatter. The changes are widespread, from the last days of working with horses and harvesting by hand, from the sailings of the Thorfinn and the Sigurd, and from peat fires and water from the well. ...

SAILING NEOLITHIC SEAS

Virtual Event Virtual Event

To reach Orkney in Neolithic times meant building vessels strong enough to cross the Pentland Firth and safely carry cattle and timber as well as people. This requires ship design and boat-building on a substantial scale – but how? Biophysicist Dr Mark Cooper of the University of Washington has looked at ancient seacraft designs in many places ...

FILM: DRAWING ARCHAEOLOGY

Virtual Event Virtual Event

The atmosphere of the world-famous excavations at the Ness of Brodgar is captured in a composition of drawing, painting and sound, made by Karen Wallis who has been an Artist in Residence there since 2016. It's more than a documentary, aiming instead to evoke the physical existence of the dig, with its focus on the archaeologists’ everyday process and their involvement with the Ness, in a flow of voices and images. ...

DYNAMIC EARTH’S TRAVELLING PLANETARIUM

Stromness Academy

Step inside, sit on a cushion on the floor, and look up to see the night sky stars and constellations in the planetarium’s dome above you, and learn to recognise them – from Orion’s Belt and the Little Bear [examples needed!]. You can follow the paths of the planets as well. There’s a second show at 7.30 pm. ...

£5
Mayfield Singers

CONCERT: MUSIC FOR THE WINTER QUEEN

St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall

Modern science was born amidst the Thirty Years War, a terrible conflict that began when an invasion of Bohemia ended the rule of its King and Queen after just one winter. The Winter Queen was Elizabeth Stuart, granddaughter of Mary Queen of Scots. The war affected the lives of many people – among them Kepler, Galileo and the poet John Donne, born 450 years ago. ...

FILM: THE DEER WOMAN

Virtual Event Virtual Event

The need to rethink the human relationship with the natural world is the context of artist Selena S. Kuzman’s new performance film. It draws on the old Highland stories of deer shapeshifting into women, bridging the human world with the natural one. Costume and headdress are created from found and pre-loved fabrics and objects from the past, building upcycled costume pieces by stitching and reimagining garments. ...

FILM: WHEN THE GRASS DANCES

Virtual Event Virtual Event

Grasses are often overlooked despite their importance to humans and their animals. Join an artist, a poet and a naturalist as they bring our attention to Orkney’s grasses. Made at the start of the grass season by Mark Jenkins, this film weaves natural history, botany, poetry and photography into a thoughtful and lingering visual experience. Meet the individual grasses and find the beauty of the meadow, verge and shoreline. ...

AFTER THE CONCERT: AND IN THESE CONSTELLATIONS THEN ARISE

The Orkney Club, Harbour Street, Kirkwall

Sit back over a drink to hear the composer Edward McGuire in conversation, speaking about his setting of Three Donne Lyrics, and his interest in the life and work of Donne amidst the turmoil of the 17th-century scientific revolution. He describes too his own interest in astronomy, expressed in works ranging from Big Bang and Orbit to Symphonies of Galaxies. ...

THE QUEEN OF SCIENCE

Virtual Event Virtual Event

Mary Somerville was an astronomer, a mathematician, and a gifted writer. She carried out research into light and magnetism, pioneered new applications of mathematics to astronomy, and wrote textbooks and popular science books that achieved great success. She did all this despite being mainly self-taught, at a time when education for women was not encouraged. ...

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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Frontiers is an online magazine from Orkney International Science Festival
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