Orkney

We've got a team that are doing the, the buoy refurbishment work and so on, and that's where we, our main sort of logistics mounting hub for projects.

And then we've got technicians based in Inverness, Orkney, and Shetland.

So it's right across the country.

And at that base you have at Oban, you've got two vessels based there.

Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty, then obtained permission to return to active service, the Arab, one of the craziest little ships in the Navy, being assigned to him.

On his representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea and protecting the fisheries north-east of the Orkneys, where, as he said, no vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect.

This ignominious work lasted for a year.

It was brought to a close in December 1804, soon after the appointment of Lord Melville in succession to Earl St Vincent as First Lord of the Admiralty.

And certainly some regions are completely devastated.

If you look at some regions like Orkney, for example, Orkney loses just over a thousand people during the First World War.

In one battle in 1650, at least a thousand Arcadians are killed within two hours.

So that gives you some context as to how devastating the conflict can be if your locality gets brought into one of these engagements.

He stayed in Linus all his life.

If you'd like to find out more about Scapa Flow Museum and our collections in Orkney, you'll find all the details in the show notes.

Voices from Scapa Flow is a Highlands and Islands Digital Heritage Network project, delivered in partnership with The Space, a not-for-profit digital agency for the arts, heritage and culture sector, and Museums and Heritage Highland.

It's funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

In the meantime, I have a story from Louise Beacon.

Louise Beacon grew up in the Orkney Isles off the north coast of Scotland, and she picked up the fiddle when she was just seven years old.

She sharpened her skills in Glasgow's session scene while studying at the Glasgow School of Art that earned a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Today, she's a Scottish musician and photographer living in the US, and she uses both to tell stories old and new.

I had a great time talking to Louise and I can't wait for you to hear that interview as well.

But in the meantime, I asked her if she could share a story about the title track from her Celtic Halloween album, Benorio.

This is the title track from Benori, and it's called Benorio, and it comes from Orkney.

I found this song sung by Ethel Finlitter and Elsie Johnson in the School of Scottish Studies archive via the Tobor and Dualtius Kist of Riches archive online.

How did you get started playing music?

Well, I grew up in Orkney, which is a group of islands in the north of Scotland.

And there's a lot of fiddle music going on all around me.

And I grew up going to concerts and listening to folk music.

yeah I

kind of begged for lessons at that point and then eventually got my hands on a fiddle and started learning from Douglas Montgomery who's an amazing musician so that's my start in music was that

and and you are from Orkney huh

I am indeed.

Go on then, tell me.

On the island of Hoy in Orkney, we're a small island, about 500 people.

Toilet waste and wastewater go to either a local community sewer and treatment system, or a private septic tank depends.

Anyway, that's rubbish because all that is on the mainland of Orkney.

Basically, it says in settled areas, wastewater moves through local drainage and treatment works.

We don't have one on this island, but anyway, I might be wrong.

And I enjoyed listening to your comment.

And I hope you had a little fun on your birthday up there in the Orkneys.

Apart from two things.

Yeah, it was all right, you know, just a normal chill-out day, a bit of nice food and plenty of sleep, yeah.