The daily lunches at the Peedie Kirk
The daily lunches at the Peedie Kirk
Among the highlights of the Festival are the lunches in the Peedie Kirk Hall. It’s an opportunity to enjoy local food, look at works by local artists, and enjoy a chat with friends…

Each day at 1 pm there is the One O’Clock Toast. This is a toast to a well-known person from Orkney, from recent times or the more distant past, given by someone who knows them well. There are insights from family members, descendants, and people with a deep knowledge of the life and times of someone who has made an impact on Orkney and beyond.
The subjects range widely from year to year – writers such as Eric Linklater and Ann Scott-Moncrieff, mariners like Capt. John Hourie and Capt. Robbie Sutherland, scholars including the folklorist Ernest W. Marwick and the botanist James Sinclair; pioneers such as William Reid Tullock in motoring and Murdoch Mackenzie; medical figures, among them Dr Rena Marwick and Dr Jessie Bond; and in the arts, the photographer Gunnie Moberg and the actor Robert Shaw.
This year’s toasts will include the artist Sylvia Wishart; Bessie Millie, “Stromness’s first renewables entrepreneur”; Elizabeth Miller, proprietrix of The Orcadian, 1944-1982; Christian Robertson, 19th-century shipping agent; Catherine Tulloch of North Ronaldsay and her journey to the World’s Fair of 1893; and Anne Leith Brundle, first curator of Orkney’s archaeology.