The Orkney News

The Orkney News is a nonprofit online newspaper that serves the community by providing free access to alternative news in Orkney.

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Could people be left without heating and hot water when the RTS signal disappears?

Dec 2, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Robert Leslie

The percentages of smart meter installations in households across Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles is currently 12%, 10% and 16% respectively. By Robert LeslieOn Sunday 9th October 2011, The Guardian website carried a story under the headline ‘Radio 4’s long wave goodbye’, which described how the ‘last pair of valve transmitters’ would signal the end of 198kHz long wave, home of the BBC’s Test Match Special and Today in Parliament.
Haakon and Magnus

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.
A Few Words About Straw

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.
Frakokk

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.
Book Review: ‘Weaponising Anti-Semitism

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.
Sharing the Beauty of Palestinian Food

Aug 21, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Robert Leslie

By Robert LeslieI held the photograph of bairns enjoying splashing through waves on a beach in Gaza for a while. I can’t recall how many of them our Gazan host Diline told us had been killed in Israeli air strikes, but it was enough to know that several of these innocent peedie bairns were no longer with us.
Vikings: The Silver Age

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.
Of Cromwell, Cavaliers and Covenanters: Orkney Under Occupation

Aug 3, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Martin Laird

By Fiona Grahame Images by Martin LairdIt was a time when the two independent nations of England and Scotland shared one king. It was a time of Covenanters and Cavaliers. It was a time of civil war, betrayal and regicide. On 20 January 1649, a High Court set up by the English Parliament charged King Charles I of high treason ‘against the realm of England’. He had been handed over to them by Scottish forces who he had surrendered to, for repayment of a debt. Ten days later he was executed.
The Hostages: #Gaza

Aug 2, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Fiona Grahame

By Fiona GrahameA return of all hostages is one of the reasons islanders in Orkney gather on the Kirk Green, Broad Street every Saturday between 1 and 2pm in their Vigil for #Gaza. Recently at one such vigil as I was laying out the names of some of those who had been killed since October 7th 2023, including those who were so young they were unnamed by their parents, a local man with his grandchild stopped me and said, ‘but I am only interested in the hostages’.
Earl Rognvald: Orkney’s Warrior Poet

Jul 29, 2024 | theorkneynews.scot | Fiona Grahame

“Who’ll challenge my nine skills? I’m champion at chess,canny recalling runes,well-read, red-hot smith – some say I shoot and skiand skull skilfully too. Best of all, I’ve masteredharp-play and poetry.” – Rognvald Kali Kolson, translated by Ian CrockattIt’s all too easy to fall into the portrayal of the Norse Earls of Orkney as savage, blood thirsty piratical rulers who enjoyed nothing better than a good raid south to bring back bountiful booty to their feasting halls in the islands.