Orkney: From beaches to bands

Flying in from the south, Orkney is glimpsed first as a scatter of green jewels on a blue cloth. Low lying, covered in fields right down to the shore, islands large and small spread out – dozens of them. Several are connected by twig-like causeways, many are fringed with golden sand, some drop away abruptly on their western edges in red sandstone cliffs. Urban settlements are few, indeed there’s only one sizeable town, curving round a large bay on the east side of the main island. But everywhere you look a web of narrow roads and tracks connects farmhouses, crofts and steadings: these are fertile islands, well-farmed and prosperous, not the untamed wilderness you might expect this far north.

There are exceptions. Several isles have heathery hills at their centre, and one, Hoy – a rampart isle to the south-west of the archipelago, separating Orkney from mainland Scotland – seems to consist of nothing but the highest of heathery hills.

But your destination is a small airport on the edge of the town on the largest island, the centrepiece in this scatter of emeralds. Kirkwall, Orkney’s capital, is home to 9,000 people, and is the bustling commercial heart of the islands. The town’s name comes from the Old Norse – like almost every place name here, and many personal names. Kirkjuvagr means “kirk by the bay” and it is indeed dominated by St Magnus Cathedral, established in 1137, another inheritance from the centuries when Orkney was part of the great Norse kingdom.

At one time the cathedral faced directly on to the shore, and longships pulled up in the shadow of its red sandstone tower. In medieval times a castle (now demolished) was built here, and, in the 18th and 19th centuries, as Orkney became a base for traders rather than Viking raiders, commercial properties sprung up. The centre of Kirkwall is essentially one long shopping street, stretching westwards in a gentle curve from the harbour: Bridge Street, Albert Street, Broad Street (where the cathedral sits, the old market cross at its feet), Victoria Street and finally Main Street. Visitors often remark admiringly on the wealth of high-quality businesses of every variety here – most of them locally owned independent shops, with only a handful of the chain stores that smother so many southern towns.

Distinctive local crafts

Particularly noteworthy are the shops run by local craftspeople. Some contain a mixter-maxter of everything from woolly hats to straw-backed chairs to pottery to musical instruments. Others focus on their owners’ specialty, and in two areas in particular Orkney has an international reputation. Celebrated for their creative reinventions of tradition are knitwear and textile designers like Judith Glue, RA Finn and Tait & Style, and jewellery firms such as Sheila Fleet, Ortak, Aurora, and Ola Gorie. Ola was the founder of the modern jewellery industry in Orkney, with her 50th anniversary recently being celebrated by an exhibition at Orkney Museum – a converted laird’s house opposite the cathedral.

All Orkney craftspeople seem to have in common an adherence to quality in everything they produce. Perhaps it’s a throwback to craft’s origins in the hard lives of subsistence crofters, where wastefulness was the very devil, but nothing is made to be thrown away. Every scarf or brooch or fiddle or cubby is made with care and attention, and made to last a lifetime – at least.

Whether it’s well worn but cherished craft items, or traditional tunes passed down the generations, or the crowstepped gables of 18th-century townhouses and the grander civic buildings of the 12th or 19th centuries, the past is everywhere in Orkney. But not fenced off and fussed over: the islands’ rich heritage, and their present-day creativity and commerce, are intertwined, indivisible. Orkney has, time and time again, been swept over by waves of population and cultural change: nomadic hunter-gatherers were replaced by monolith-raising Neolithic folk; Picts built brochs and carved their enigmatic symbols; the Norse made the islands their own – till the Scots acquired them as a dowry five hundred years ago.

All of these peoples have raised buildings and monuments, told stories, created art and craft, on top of, and without obliterating, what went before. A walk down the streets of Kirkwall will take you through many centuries of visible history. Out in the country, where Bronze Age and Neolithic remains are everywhere, the vista takes in five millennia.

Looking to the future

So is Orkney a land stuck in the past, obsessed with the long-gone glory days described in that stirring chronicle of skullsplitters and saints, the Orkneyinga saga? You’d hardly know it from everyday life here. Orcadians are renowned for their industry and inventiveness, and are making the islands a world centre for renewable energy – wind, wave and tide. More likely to strike the first-time visitor, though, is the creativity with which the excellent local produce is turned it into delicious food. The islands’ economy is overwhelmingly agricultural – remember those lush green fields reaching down to the shore? – and beef and dairy cattle, and sheep, fill the pastures. Cereals such as oats and barley – including an ancient form called bere – are grown and transformed into bannocks, bread and cakes, as well as beer and whisky (we have two award-winning breweries and two distilleries). With the sea all around, fish and shellfish are plentiful; much gets exported, but local processors provide superb boiled crab, soused herring and smoked haddock and salmon. Good quality restaurants, cafés and hotels abound: again Orcadians’ dedication to quality is evident.

Orkney has had its wandering black sheep as well as its steady, sturdy tenacious farming folk, and the isles have a long tradition of seafaring. This has helped make all Orcadians much more open-minded and globally aware than you might expect. It was a rare family, a hundred years ago, that did not have at least one family member away to the whaling or the merchant navy, or trading in the Nor Wast of Canada. These travellers brought back exotic goods, thrilling stories, and news about every corner of the wide world. In the 21st century, Orcadians still travel as seafarers, but increasingly also in the oil industry and the renewables sector, and to study. Most of the wanderers do return, eventually, bringing with them a commitment to make Orkney work as a place to live in all year round, not just a tourist destination.

It’s not that visitors aren’t welcome; indeed, most of them find incomparably warm hospitality here. (And they have more than enough to fill a week or two of sightseeing, what with the archaeology, the landscape and wildlife, the food and drink, the crafts, the Pier Art Centre, the music…) It’s just that none of this is arranged for visitors: Orcadians have a quiet confidence in themselves and their culture, whether or not it’s endorsed or even witnessed by outsiders. It is a community, an authentic island community, proud of its past, enjoying its present, dedicated to a balanced, sustainable future.

Festivals and culture

A great example of creativity blending with enterprise is Orkney’s plethora of festivals. To name just a few, there’s the Folk Festival in May, the Fine Wine Festival and St Magnus arts festival, both in June, and the International Science Festival in September. All are run by individuals or groups passionate about their area of interest, and operating at the highest levels of professionalism to showcase the best of Orkney to the world – and to bring the best of the rest of the world to Orkney.

In recent years, Orcadian musicians have been making their mark on the world as never before, winning awards – and the hearts of audiences – across the country. 2011 has started particularly well, with band Broken Strings awarded the Danny Kyle prize at Celtic Connections, and fiddler Kristan Harvey named Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year. The success of these up-and-coming acts is testament to the rich ferment of Orkney music. Some established local bands, like Saltfishforty, The Chair, Three Peace Sweet and Skalder create innovative blends of traditional and contemporary sounds. Others, like Hullion, the Ronald Anderson Band and the Braelanders are more traditionally traditional. Still others, such as the Fastliners, the Condition and the Driftwood Cowboys, have strong roots in specific styles (blues, rock and country respectively) with just a tinge of Orkney influence.

A good place to feel the buzz is the Wrigley Sisters’ music centre, The Reel, right in the centre of Kirkwall. Founded by sisters Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley, it’s a friendly coffee house as well as a hub for teaching, performing and supporting Orkney music in all its many forms.

The Wrigleys had a successful international career as touring artists before coming home to “put something back”. Their blending of entrepreneurial vision and artistic instinct, of traditional inspiration and modern interpretation, is very typical of Orkney. And it helps explain why these green isles in the far north are such a great place to visit – or live.