Lunches & Evenings 2025
The buffet lunches of Orkney fare at the Peedie Kirk are a treat to look forward to. They’re an opportunity to meet some of the varied mix of people who gather, and each of the five lunches has a One O’Clock Toast, with the subjects this year including an Orkney woman doctor, Orkney’s first county archaeologist, and a great 19th-century folklorist.
And in the evenings we have a wonderful mix of talents in the Orkney Club – fiddle players, accordionists, a poet from Ireland and a choir from Aberdeen. There are stories of life at sea, and explorations of the quantum world, and so much to enjoy.
Sit back and enjoy traditional music from Orkney and other parts of the north - from Norway, Faroe, Shetland, played by Lesley MacLeod (fiddle), Fran Gray (accordion) and Hamish Bayne (concertina), with Tom Ward (concertina and small pipes) making a welcome return to Orkney; and meet some of the northern guests taking part in the Festival.
Meet friends old or new and enjoy the best of Orkney cheese, meat, fish and baking. Come in good time for the best choice of food and for the Toast. The One O’Clock Toast today is to the island of North Ronaldsay. It is given by Howie Firth.
Poet Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan joins physicist Prof. James Millen on a journey of exploration into the quantum world. “Art and science are just different languages trying to understand the what, the why, and the how in everything around us."
Meet friends old or new and enjoy the best of Orkney cheese, meat, fish and baking. Come in good time for the best choice of food and for the Toast. The One O’Clock Toast today is to Dr Harriet Taylor from Longhope, who was the doctor in Shapinsay for 20 years. It is given by Andrea Massey of the Orkney Women Doctors Research Group.
With a long seagoing tradition in his family and the island of Graemsay where they came from, it’s not surprising that by the time that Len Wilson reached the age of three he was sitting at the tiller of his father’s boat. And by the time he was sixteen he was at nautical college learning about radio, radar and Morse code, on the way to becoming a radio officer. With the family tradition also including music, his son Laurence joins for a tune or two, accompanying the fiddle music of Jennifer Wrigley.
After the concert, Twa Folk (Irene Watt and Graham White) welcome you with music and song from the North-East of Scotland. There are songs of land and sea, and their instruments include harp, bouzouki, harmonica and bodhran.
Meet friends old or new and enjoy the best of Orkney cheese, meat, fish and baking. Come in good time for the best choice of food and for the One O’Clock Toast. Today it's to the Deerness Mermaid, and given by Ria Leslie of Orkney Sea Shanty Society.
The Mearns Singers round off their visit with songs from north and south. There are songs and music too from Twa Folk (Irene Watt and Graham White).
Meet friends old or new and enjoy the best of Orkney cheese, meat, fish and baking. Come in good time for the best choice of food and for the Toast. The One O’Clock Toast today is in memory of Walter Traill Dennison from Sanday, born 200 years ago, who gathered a treasury of Orkney folklore. It is given by storyteller Tom Muir.
Orkney-based accordionist Karen Tweed and Edinburgh-based quantum physicist and pianist Erika Andersson present a performance of music inspired by quantum physics. They share a passion and fascination for music, art, textiles and science and explore topics from entanglement to quantum computers. In each case the music expresses the essence of the concept.
Meet friends old or new and enjoy the best of Orkney cheese, meat, fish and baking. Come in good time for the best choice of food and for the Toast. The One O’Clock Toast today is to Dr Raymond Lamb, Orkney’s first County Archaeologist. It is given by Prof. Ingrid Mainland of the UHI Archaeology Institute.
