Stromness Museum
Mon-Sat 1000-1700,
Sun 1100-1600

Admission: Adults £7.50, Students £5, Children under 16 Free

The county’s pioneering role and the human stories behind it.

The exhibition highlights the role of the town of Stromness, home to the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), with its wave test site a little further along the coast at Billia Croo, and home too to Heriot-Watt University’s Orkney campus, which from which many enterprising people, projects and companies have developed.

Among the artefacts on view – many of which have been loaned by members of Orkney Renewable Energy Forum (OREF) – is the first subsea cable that connected Burray and South Ronaldsay to the public electricity supply in 1954.

In the Pilot’s House section of the Museum, you can see a Lucas Freelite, a turbine that was quite common on Orkney farms in the first half of the 20th century, and contrast it with a modern test version of a tidal turbine blade.

A highlight of the exhibit is the story of the late Pete Oswald, whose groundbreaking work led to the creation of a synthetic aviation fuel using green hydrogen produced in Orkney. This fuel powered the world’s first ever flight using synthetic fuel, supported by the RAF.