Fiona Grahame

Nov 3, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Fiona Grahame

By Fiona GrahameIn the 11th century two brothers ruled Orkney, Paul and Erlend,twin sons of Thorfinn the Mighty and Ingibiorg Finnsdottir.   They did so successfully for 30 years. Paul married a daughter of Earl Hakon Ivarsson, part of the Norwegian aristocracy, and they had a son Haakon. Erlend married Thora, daughter of Sumarlidi Ospaksson, linked to the Icelandic Norse families, and to the nobility in Scotland, England and Wales. They had a son Magnus.

Oct 20, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Fiona Grahame |Martin Laird

By Fiona Grahame, Images by Martin Laird. Plastic ropes, nets and cable ties are amongst the most plentiful pieces of marine litter to be found both in the seas and washed ashore. They have become an indispensable material for farmers, fishers and an essential component in packaging. And yet their use is relatively recent. Straw was once the choice material for Orcadians which they skilfully twisted and prepared for  a myriad of uses around the farmstead.

Oct 13, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Fiona Grahame

By Fiona GrahameDescribed as ‘sinister’ and ‘scheming’, Frakokk of Dale, gets a bad press throughout historical accounts, even in the 21st century. Her story is shrouded in mysticism and sorcery, which subsumes the real tale of a powerful woman in late Medieval Scotland. Frakokk of Dale was the daughter of Moddan of Dale, which was a great valley in Caithness. She was, by the 11th century, part of a Celtic Norse lineage that dominated the north of Scotland and the Northern Isles.

Sep 25, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Fiona Grahame

By Fiona GrahameWeaponising Anti Semitism: How the Israel lobby brought down Jeremy Corbyn, by Asa Winstanley. Published by OR Books, New York. The recorded history of Western Europe is littered with campaigns and pogroms targeting Jews. In England between 1189 and 1190 in major cities: London, York etc and even small towns, appalling violence, including murder, was inflicted on Jews, even by those who had been their neighbours.

Aug 5, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Fiona Grahame

archaeology By Fiona GrahameOn Monday 15th March 1858, George Petrie, antiquarian and Sheriff Clerk of Orkney made his way with as much  haste as was possible from his home in Kirkwall to the Bay of Skaill, Orkney. What made George Petrie rush out to Skaill was the finding a few days earlier on the 11th of March of a magnificent hoard of silver by a young boy, David Linklater. David had accidentally come across the Viking hoard of silver down a rabbit hole.