Scapa and a camera by CW Burrows is a record of the Scapa Flow area, Orkney, at the time of World War One. It is a sought-after book, both in its original 1921 edition and the more recent facsimile edition. Burrows was Cashier of the Dockyard section at the Naval Base in Scapa Flow from | more…
“Stick in”, a phrase I associate with James Slater, Pa as we called him, my maternal grandfather. Born in poverty, he crossed the globe, returned to Orkney, bought and grew his own farm, working hard and innovatively. (It should also be said that I write from the perspective of the first child of his favourite | more…
All the surviving photos show John Ross as an older man with a white beard. Perhaps it was grey earlier, like the Ancient Mariner. Fishing and farming John, my great grandfather, spent his whole life in Orkney, crofting and fishing in the parish of Walls. Beyond the bare biographical details, I sadly know very little | more…
