All roads – and runways – lead to Orkney this month, writes Susan Welsh
September looks like being a very busy month in Orkney with not one but two major festivals – one based on science, the other on aviation – in September.
Today, Professor Steve ‘Jake’ Jacobs, former chief scientist of TV’s Discovery Channel, known as Wizard IV, will open the Orkney International Science Festival in Kirkwall.
Jake Jacobs is currently developing a new television series with NASA Television and as well as opening the festival will present one of his shows in Kirkwall Town Hall at noon today, September 4.
During the festival, which runs from September 4-10, there’s a fantastic opportunity to find out more about the world around us with talks, workshops and fun days relating to everything from wildlife and the environment to energy and marine technology.
Highlights include a look at Norse and Scottish genetics, to mark the 1000th anniversary of the battle of Clontarf and Earl Sigurd’s raven banner; the story of Galileo, to mark the 450th anniversary of his birth; and the search for the real Hamlet, to mark the 450th anniversary of the birth of Shakespeare.
There’s serious subjects such as the changes in society and in physics that developed through World War I along with lighter topics such as Dr Trina Dinnis’ lecture which looks at “The Mathematics of Why I Can’t Get A Boyfriend” – a talk that could just change the life of singletons looking for love!
Saturday, September 6 will see a special family fun day taking place at the King Street Halls in Kirkwall featuring the great Food Technology Roadshow, a Bloodhound supercar replica, build and race balloon
car kits, astronomy activities and the chance to take a virtual dive on the seabed.
Throughout the festival there will be numerous opportunities to sample local food as several events will be rounded off with food and drink.
For full details of what’s on visit www.oisf.org
On September 10, as the Science Festival draws to a close, the Orkney Aviation Festival opens.
Running until September 14, it will highlight the story of military and civil aviation in the islands.
Orkney has been at the centre of numerous aviation developments over the years, through two world wars and the pioneering air service of Captain E.E. (Ted) Fresson in the 1930s.
A new era in island aviation began in 1967 with the start of Loganair’s inter-island service and the company’s president, Scott Grier, will tell the story, with archive footage, on the evening of Friday September 12.
The festival is an initiative of a local group, Another Orkney Production, led by photographer and film-maker Moya McDonald, who says that the driving force behind the new initiative is to put on record the remarkable range of achievements in aviation that have taken place in Orkney.
Moya said: “Orkney is the ideal location for an Aviation Festival.
“Scapa Flow had a huge impact and the programme will include a talk about radar in Orkney in World War II given by Ian Brown, curator of the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune.
“We will also hear about the Fleet Air Arm in Scapa Flow from the daughter of one of the pilots, Sheena Taylor, who comes from Stromness.
“From the flying boats in Scapa Flow on U-boat patrol to today’s pioneering Loganair inter-island services, Orkney has a wonderfully rich and varied aviation history.”
The festival opens with an aviation film, Night in Westray introduced by Richard Fresson.
A film show in Birsay on September 11, Flying High, will feature films from the Scottish Screen Archive collection and a DVD of the show will be available on the night.
The closing event of the festival will be an Aviation Trail Bus Tour on the afternoon of Sunday, September 14, including the unveiling of an aviation interpretation board at the Standing Stones Hotel in Stenness.
Director of the science festival, Howie Firth, said the timing of the aviation festival couldn’t be better.
“It fits in so well and quite a number of people coming to Orkney for the Science Festival like to stay on a little afterwards, and this could be a great attraction for them.
“We will have a fascinating event on the closing day of the Science Festival to tell the story of the first Orkney resident to fly the Pentland Firth.
“This was Agnes Shearer from Kirkwall, then a young reporter at The Orcadian, who later became the well-known Scottish author and contributor to the BBC, Ann Scott-Moncrieff.
“Her untimely death at the age of only 29 was described at the time as a ‘serious loss to the literary and cultural life of Scotland’.
Details of all Aviation Festival events can be found at www.oisf.org