Yumpu_ May_June 2017_02

A Quiet, Natural History
A Quiet, Natural History
‘Owing to its position, it attracts a
startling variety of wildlife to a
setting that is peaceful and harmonious.’
A Quiet,
Natural History
Stephen Roberts discovers several aspects of Orkney
Peace and quiet is what I associate with Orkney.
I have rarely found that ambience in the
modern world, somewhere I was so far removed
from that I could hear wind and birdsong and little
else. On the island of Hoy I drove for several miles
without seeing another soul; it was the native flora
and fauna that accompanied me. I have to say that
I missed the human race not one jot.
Orkney’s 70 islands lie only eight miles north of
Caithness. Some islands, such as the two I visited,
Mainland and Hoy, ring the famous Scapa Flow,
the UK’s principal naval base during the two
World Wars. 6,000 years’ worth of human
endeavour, from stone circles and chambered
tombs, to gun batteries and the latest renewable
energy technology, are part of this landscape.
The natural landscape is predominantly
moorland, bog and heath, with an almost
complete absence of woodland, one notable
exception being Happy Valley, consciously
created in the second half of the 20th Century to
give the islands something they lacked, a clump
of some 700 trees. Colour is provided by
wildflowers, which take root almost anywhere.
Only Found
Once or twice I stopped to admire sweeping
collections of poppies growing on verges. The
rare Scottish primrose, with purple flowers
(yellow centre), is only found on Orkney and
northerly parts of mainland Scotland. The
equally rare great yellow bumblebee inhabits
the same kind of area.
Off the north-western tip of Mainland is
Birsay, a tiny island, once Orkney’s most holyplace,
where patron-saint, Magnus, was
buried before being exhumed and carted off
to Kirkwall. Reached at low tide via a
causeway, the islet’s turf is sometimes covered
with pink Armeria (thrift or ‘sea pink’ due to
colour and location).
Sea-birds nest on cliffs, including a colony of
Arctic tern and the Atlantic puffin, one of
Orkney’s trademark birds. The best place to see
this colourful but often elusive creature is on
Westray, one of the outliers. Orkney is a fine
UK’s haunt for seabirds, with 21 breeding
species. There are 13 RSPB reserves where
resident and migrant birds can be observed.
32 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER MAY / JUNE 2017
MAY / JUNE 2017 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER 33