Outings

Walk through Binscarth Woods and over the hill to the Loch of Wasdale, on a section of the St Magnus Way. Orkney wildlife guide Megan Taylor looks out for wild plants while ethnobotanical researcher Anna Canning discusses their traditional uses for sustenance and health with foraging experts from Scotland and Poland. After the film there’s an opportunity for live questions to them both on aspects of wildlife and foraging.

Take the ferry from Stromness to Moaness pier, and walk up the brae to the Hoy Kirk for seaweed soup for supper, with a recipe here for you to prepare at home in advance. Then sit back and enjoy some music, with the story of Jimmy o’ the Bu’s Polka, with memories from his grand-daughter Jean Thomson and his tune played by six of his great-great-grandchildren, including the fiddle that he played on. Then we hear the story of settlement in Rackwick from archaeologist Dan Lee.

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 some of them in action. Details of some examples to come.

We go over to Orphir and a walk across the sands of Waulkmill Bay and up through the RSPB’s Hobbister reserve on a section of the St Magnus Way. It’s a journey from sandflats and saltmarsh to moorland and sea cliffs for ethnobotanical researcher Anna Canning and Orkney wildlife guide Megan Taylor, as they look out for wild plants and discuss their traditional uses for sustenance and health with foragers from Scotland and Poland.