The word ‘foraging’ brings images of journeys among hedgerows and fields for wild foods – herbs, berries, nuts, wild garlic and mushrooms – but it happens on the shore as well. For Martin Gray, one of the most experienced and well known explorers of Orkney’s shorelines, beachcombing is not simply the delight in finding an [...]
Many years ago, for a child in Stromness the lighthouses of Graemsay were ‘Granny’s candles’. The island seemed a world away. Then one fine morning Uncle James collected us from the pier and soon we were weaving across the swirling tide to the noust of Quoys. At Garson, under the noon-day sun, cats dozed by [...]
The Cod Hunters tells the story of the Shetlanders who fished for cod around the north Atlantic in their cod sailing smacks. Fishing at Greenland, Iceland, Faroe and Rockall, the cod smacks returned with cargoes of salt cod which were then dried on Shetland beaches before being exported to Spain. Salt cod is the main [...]
A late spring can bring feelings of malaise and tiredness. One of the tonics common to Orkney last century involved catching snails late at night, when they have a quiet feed, suspending them on a string in front of the fire, and catching the oil in a cup. Snails were used for other remedies. They [...]
Every morning when I get up early and look out at the sea from the upstairs window, I see more than two hundred seals in the bay. They turn somersaults, lie on their backs in the water, flapping a lazy flipper, or bob up suddenly, whiskers dripping, like a rather pompous elderly gentleman taking an [...]
In Stromness, where I grew up, the yole was used for fishing and for pleasure trips but in my grandparents’ island, Graemsay, it was also the main mode of transport. There had been a South Isles steamer for many years but Graemsay had no pier. The Hoy Head would lie off Hoy High lighthouse while [...]
The Hessdalen phenomenon of hovering and flashing balls of light is fascinating, especially as there now seems to be far more serious worldwide research into what used to be widely regarded with scepticism, and connected to the realms of UFOs and SciFi. What is particularly interesting to me is that the Hessdalen lights do not [...]
Through the 20th century the only commercial fishery in Graemsay was lobster, along with the occasional halibut or skate. In the main, whitefish and partan (edible crab) were for the table. The following is from my personal memory, from about 1944, when I spent much of my annual summer holiday round Windywaas and Garson and [...]
The mackerel is a migratory fish that appears round Graemsay waters in July and August. It was only eaten when very fresh and the remainder were kept for creel bait. They feed on sand eels and one of the most prolific fishing grounds is the appropriately named Sand Eel, a shallow sandy area a short [...]
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