Anne and I are officially finishing at Scapa Flow today. We would like to say thank you to everyone we have worked with and met over the last 3 and a half years. Andrew is here until the end of November and Julian until the end of December. Any queries should be directed to them.

So, its goodbye from Anne and Goodbye from me.  X

Renowned military historian, Geoffrey Stell, is in Stromness tomorrow (Thursday 13th September), as a follow-up to his popular talks at the Science Festival, to talk on Ness Battery - Defending Hoy Sound in Two World Wars. His illustrated talk is free, and starts at 7.30pm at Stromness Golf Club. The evening will also include a chance to hear Andy Hollinrake of Stromness Tours give the latest on the hunt for the Ness Battery mural artist, AR Woods. Two oil paintings, believed to be by the same AR Woods, will be on display over the evening.

The talk has been organised by Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme after severe weather prevented the running of the same talk in December 2011.

There are some events in Hoy this coming week to let you know about ....

Hoy Kirk is delighted to be welcoming the Science Festival back
Orkney International Science Festival ASTRONOMY EVENING
FRIDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 7:30pm in association with Orkney Astronomical Society, with speakers Maarten de Vries and Michael Sinclair, and stargazing to follow, weather permitting. With soup, bannocks and wine.

This is a free event sponsored by the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme.
For those on the mainland the timing of the evening suits the ferry from Stromness.
Friday evening ferry from Stromness 5.45 pm, back from Moaness 10 pm, details from Orkney Ferries 01856 872044 

Jeff Clark's Weather Exhibition 'Silver Lining' will be on show at Hoy Kirk until the end of September.

ARCHAEOLOGY EVENTS all next week 3-7th September
Dan Lee from ORCA will be back at Cantick, South Walls this week and in Braebuster, Hoy on Thursday and Friday.

Monday 3rd & Tuesday 4th Cantick walkover survey - 10:00-15:30 Meet Cantick car park
Wednesday 5th Cantick Guided walk 2:30-15:30 Meet Cantick car park
Thursday 6th Braebuster, Hoy, survey - 10:00-15:30 Meet at Braebuster Rd cattlegrid
Friday 7th Braebuster, Hoy, Guided walk - 12:30-15:30 Meet at cattlegrid

Contact: Dan Lee 07990998153
Daniel.Lee@orkney.uhi.ac.uk
...come and join in, learn survey techniques, for all or part of the day....

FILM PREMIERE

'The Imaginary Worlds of Scapa Flow' by Mark Jenkins

A creative docu-drama inspired by memoirs of wartime Orkney.

Saturday 1st September 7:45 for 8pm at The Cromarty Hall, St Margaret's Hope.

Live music from JAMES WATSON -  composer of the film score.

Free entrance but booking essential

Either rsvp by email: andrew.parkinson@pierartscentre.com

or call the Pier Arts Centre on 01856 850 209

Public Transport info:

Stagecoach X1

18:40 dep Stromness Travel Centre

19:15 dep Kirkwall Travel Centre

19:45 arr St. Margaret's Hope

Show start 8pm

Show end 10pm

Stagecoach X1

22:11 dep St. Margaret's Hope

22:41 arr Kirkwall Travel Centre

Stagecoach X10 

23:20 dep Kirkwall Ayre Hotel

23:45 arr Stromness Travel Centre

or

Stagecoach X1 

01:00 dep Kirkwall Travel Centre

01:30 arr Stromness Travel Centre

Watch the trailer. 

The Imaginary Worlds of Scapa Flow is a 35 minute creative docu-drama inspired by memoirs of service men and women based in wartime Orkney. Memoirs are taken from three publications: 'Scapa Flow' by Malcolm Brown & Patricia Meehan, 'Sky Over Scapa' by Gregor Lamb, and 'Bloody Orkney' by Virginia Schroder.

The film was made during a film residency commissioned by the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme in collaboration with the Pier Arts Centre.

Thirty three local people filled roles as crew, actors and voice over artistes. Filming took place in many locations around the coastline of Scapa Flow , and the Cromarty Hall as a studio for interior filming. The soundtrack was composed and played by Orcadian James Watson, who will be playing a specially composed set for the night.

The project was organised by the Pier Arts Centre with support from the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme, and funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Orkney Islands Council, the Scottish Government, and the European Community Orkney LEADER 2007-2013 Programme.

Mark Jenkins

Hello everyone

There have been a number of changes to the team in the past week.

Anne has a job with the RSPB and is no longer with the team here. Julian also has a job with the RSPB and will work for them half a week and the other half will be spent in the Scapa Flow office. He will be in during the afternoons so can be contacted from one pm onwards. Sheila had her last day with us on Wednesday and is now away to begin a new job with Bute & Argyll council. From next week I will be working half the week for the Scapa Team and the other half in my new job which is working for the Criminal Justice Department. I am in the Scapa Office on Mondays, Fridays and Thursday afternoons.  With all the reducation in staff Andrew will now be working with us full time from Monday next week. Poor soul!

I hope you can make sense of all of that - so just to re-cap, here is a brief bit of information to let you know who is in when..... so far, we are understanding it all!

Julian - afternoons only 1 - 5pm

Joyce - Mondays, Fridays and Thursday afternoon

Andrew - full time

Joyce

If you are interested in fungi or seaweeds then there are two course which will run later this year. Please contact Julian for details.

Wednesday 10th to Friday 12thth October – fungal forays around Orkney on each day, with microscope workshops in Kirkwall in the evenings

Special identification workshop run by national expert Liz Holden, organised by Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme in association with Orkney Field Club and the Orkney Biodiversity Records Centre.

Booking essential – to book please email julian.branscombe@orkney.gov.uk – or ring 01856 852037, but please note that Julian is now only in the office part-time, and it may take a couple of days for messages on the answerphone to be responded to.

Identifying seaweeds

Saturday 20th October – all day, in and around Stromness

Special identification workshop run by Dr Martin Wilkinson of Heriot-Watt University, organised by Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme in association with Orkney Field Club and the Orkney Biodiversity Records Centre.

Booking essential – to book please email julian.branscombe@orkney.gov.uk – or ring 01856 852037, but please note that Julian is now only in the office part-time, and it may take a couple of days for messages on the answerphone to be responded to.

The work at Bankburn Cottage is underway now the birds have flown and work will not interfere with the wildlife. I went along a couple of night ago to see how things were going. I was delighted to see that Casey's have put up jackets over the trees to afford some protection from the machinery and scaffolding.

Looking a bit sorry for itself! It is sad to see the cottage like this but when finished it will keep the house in good repair for many years.

You can see from the straight scaffolding just how much the gable wall is slanting. This will be taken down as far as is needed and rebuilt.

As much of the original rafters will remain but additional framing will be installed to support the flag roof where it is needed.

... and finally as many of the original flags will be put back on to the roof.

It will be wonderful when the work is completed. It is testimony to the high regard everyone had for Edwin Harrold that so much love and attention is being spent on his home.

Although the usual path to the woodland is blocked by scaffolding you can still visit the site by going through the field with the newly planted trees to the left of the car park. Just follow the signs and enjoy!

Visitors to Scapa might have noticed a new path has been installed. This is to allow wheelchair access to the Royal Oak Memorial and was done through the Scapa Flow Partnership. I was out last night having a look at it and think Sam Green has done a wonderful job.

We're taking the opportunity to promote a talk on Thursday 2nd August, St Magnus Centre, 7.30pm, organised by Penny Martin of Seasearch and Orkney Field Club. She has organised for George Brown, a Seasearch diver, to give a slideshow of photographs taken on the recent Seasearch dives from St Kilda, North Rona, Sule Skerry and other locations between St Kilda and Orkney, following the recent dive boat charter from Orkney to explore these wonderful remote waters. It is not quite Scapa Flow, but we know how much interest there is in underwater wildlife - it will be well worth going along!

The talk is free, but there will be a collection to help cover the costs of the room.

Seasearch is a project for volunteer sports divers who have an interest in what they're seeing under water, want to learn more and want to help protect the marine environment around the coasts of Britain and Ireland. The main aim is to map out the various types of underwater habitat around our coasts. In addition they are recording what lives in each area, establishing the richest sites for marine life, the sites where there are problems and the sites which need protection.

AR Woods – have we found him?

Since our projects began we have all wanted to know who the painter of the mural at Ness Battery is. We have put out appeals and various people – particularly Andy Hollinrake from Stromness Tours – have done extensive research.

So have our joint efforts found this man at last… Well read on, compare the photos and see what you think.

Albert John Rycraft Woods was born in Gravesend, Kent in 1878. He was a seaman turned piermaster and was employed by the Port of London Authority in the latter decades of his working life. His final position was as piermaster at Tower Pier before he retired in 1947.

A.R. Woods and his dog, Peter

Although now seemingly forgotten in Kent and London, he was something of a celebrity in his day. He published his memoirs I Guarded The Waterfront in 1942. The book shows a picture of him posing with his dog.

The book, published in accordance with the ‘Book Production War Economy Standard’, could say nothing about what he had done to date during World War II, as of course it was subject to the strict censorship in place in the interests of national security at the time.

As well as writing he was an amateur artist. He seems not to have used his initial J when signing his paintings, and indeed the dust jacket of his book says AR Woods. However, a typographic error gives his initials as AP on the book itself.

The Tower of London on the left and shutters on the cottage on the right. Can you see the similarities?

London Docks on the left and on the right a close up of reflections in the stream.

The picture above is the one owned by Mr McTavish and was recently loaned to the Stromness Musuem for a short exhibition. It shows buildings in the background. Are there similarities between the buildings and the trees depicted on the mural?

And finally lets look at the signatures.

And not to influence you in any way but the S on each of them reminds me of the number 5. The signature from the mural is on the bottom left! :-)

Experts are increasingly confident that the Kent born piermaster was the man responsible for the Ness Battery mural. Recent work by Scottish Wall Painting Conservators resulted in their professional opinion being that the oil paintings you see and the mural are by the same hand.

Albert Woods died in Deptford, London in 1950. We are fairly sure this is the man who painted the mural at Ness. What do you think?

Visitors to Happy Valley will have noticed that a few small trees have been carefully cut down around the house. This is to allow the builders access to the gable ends, roof and chimneys for their work to restore the building in a traditional style, under Listed Building Consent. Work has not started before as we had to wait for a mother chaffinch and her chick to vacate their nest before some of trees could be taken down.

A few trees have been removed to allow access for scaffolding. We hope work to the site will begin this week.

We hope the work to repair the chimneys, re-flag the roof and to re-build the gable walls which are beginning to bow out will start up this week. This work was a high priority for the Friends of Happy Valley, who are strong guardians of the site and its special character, so we will all be very pleased to see it begin.

A long time ago there used to be some faeries at the bottom of the garden. They sat next to a tree stump and were quite an attraction. However, months ago some of them went on holiday and only one faery remained. It seemed as if she was destined to be alone forever but when we were there yesterday I was delighted to see that she had a friend and the friend has brought a mobile home. How wonderful – I am sure that now we will see many more faeries move in.

So, now on to more serious information. Some of the steps were in a bit of a wobbly condition and were not very safe so Magnus Johnstone has made some new ones and has added a hand rail.  He has also ‘shored’ up and re-built part of the stone dyke at the bottom of the burn. Magnus does a lot of work for us as he does a really good job as you can see from the photos here.

The steps have been replaced and a hand rail secured.

A really lovely job.

The valley is looking really good just now, very dense with lots of flowers out. If you are planning a visit it would be better to go now before the builders get in and if you have young chidren or grandchildren make sure they ‘discover’ the new faery and her home. 

(c) Dean Holmes

We are about to say goodbye to Anne who begins a new job with the RSPB in August. Julian has also got a post with them and from August will be working half the week for the SFLPS and the other half for the RSPB. He will be in the office each afternoon. To help `tide' us over we have a new member of staff who has just joined him. I will let him introduce himself....

Hello I am originally from the Midlands, I moved to Orkney in 2010. Having a technical background in IT involving databases, web design and dynamic websites I have worked in various sectors including telecommunications, media and banking. My current work (and voluntary work at Orkney Museum) is extremely satisfying in bringing together aspects of heritage and museum collections with IT technology in making them both accessible and engaging to the Orkney community and beyond.

Andrew can  be contacted on 852 039 or email him at Andrew.purdy@orkney.gov.uk

AR Woods at Stromness Museum!

Orkney’s mysterious WWII mural painter, AR Woods, is being brought back to life with an exhibition at Stromness Museum this weekend. From Friday to Monday, three oil paintings – believed to be by the same AR Woods that painted the famous mural in the Mess Hall at Ness Battery – will be on show at the Museum.

The Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme (SFLPS) have joined local history enthusiasts in the hunt for the identity of the Ness Battery mural artist over the last three years. SFLPS now has two paintings by “an” AR Woods. There is convincing evidence that these paintings are by seaman turned Thames piermaster Albert (John) Rycraft Woods, born Gravesend, Kent in 1877, who retired from his role at Tower Pier in 1947."

The hunt for the artist has gone global. The second of the paintings was posted to the Scapa Flow scheme earlier this year by a Canadian woman, Joan Hollander, who bought it as part of a job lot at an auction near Toronto. She was researching the artist on-line, and found the story about the first oil painting on the www.spirit-of-orkney.com website. She was so moved by the tale that she decided that she must gift her AR Woods painting to Orkney.

The quest moved a step on in April. Iain MacTavish, from Whitchurch in Shropshire, got in touch with SFLPS having found the story on-line. Two years ago he had bought a painting of boats, perhaps on the Thames, by an AR Woods – at what he describes as “a rather posh car boot sale”. Iain’s internet research matched his picture to the two oil paintings in Orkney this April. Within days of getting in touch, he and his partner, Clair Butler, had booked a holiday to Orkney, to bring his painting up for this one-weekend-only show, and to see the Ness Battery mural.

SFLPS Manager, Julian Branscombe, says “We are very excited to be having this mini-exhibition of AR Woods paintings. Stromness Museum is a wonderful venue. Finding another AR Woods painting provides an even better context for linking these oil paintings, known to be a Thames piermaster, to the Ness Battery mural. We are very grateful to Iain and Clare for bringing it to Orkney so it can be put on display this weekend.”

Julian continues “We are still looking for evidence of what brought AR Woods to Orkney, which we hope would provide the final corroborating proof that is by the same man who was the London piermaster. However, we are increasingly confident that we have found our man. Karen Dundas and Fiona Allardyce from Scottish Wall Paintings Conservators felt confident that the style of painting and the form of the signature justified a confident attribution of the mural to the same hand as the two oil paintings. The painting owned by Iain MacTavish painting offers further supporting evidence.”

The renowned Stromness Museum is home to what is arguably Orkney’s most fascinating and varied museum collection. At present it is also hosting their 2012 summer exhibition of Sailors’ Souvenirs. The AR Woods paintings are on display from Friday 6 July to Monday 9 July. The Stromness Museum admission charge remains unchanged, and the Museum is open each day (including Saturday & Sunday) from 10am to 5pm.
To see the famous AR Woods mural at Ness Battery, book your tour with Stromness Tours by ringing 07759 857298 or visit www.nessbattery.co.uk.

Anne, Jasmyn and I went snorkelling at the second barrier yesterday. This is a very good site where you can see lots of wildlife in water just knee deep. Anne took some lovely photos and I wanted to show them to you just to let you see just a few of the creatures we saw.

Flounder

Sea hares are breeding at the moment and there were many many of them around!

Stickleback. Notice the lovely colours of seaweed in the picture. It looks so different when you are snorkelling and is nothing like the boring slippy stuff you get when you are trying to rockpool!

The same fish but look in front of it. A small fish is having a `stand off' with it!

Dahlia Anemone - really lovely

Pipit and Robin

Chaffinch and Oyster Catcher

All photos Alistair Holmes.

Happy Valley, Stenness

It appears odd that the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership would be involved in Happy Valley, which is in Stenness, but one of the key projects within the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme was a project to help create a nature reserve so local people and visitors can enjoy and learn about wildlife. However, the original project plan to find a site around the shores of Scapa Flow proved unrealistic.

The roof on the house. It is a mixture of flagstone and metal sheeting. This will be taken off and re-flagged. The windows will be replaced and additonal small windows put on the far side of the roof.

Happy Valley came up in discussion and seemed to be the best option to progress a nature reserve. The site was gifted to the Council in the mid 2000s by Professor Isbister, following the death of Edwin Harrold who did so much to plant up the land and welcome people onto it to enjoy it over the 50 years he lived there. The possibility of SFLPS support for work at Happy Valley was discussed with the Friends of Happy Valley, and the Council who owns the site. They were all very positive about the possibility. We then asked our main funder – the Heritage Lottery Fund – if this would be possible and were delighted when they agreed.

The room behind the green door was Edwin's workshed and housed hundreds of tools, fan belts, motors, bicycle parts and all other kinds of wonders. He was a very practical man and made use of all kinds of materials.

The work we are supporting includes wildlife surveys, access work, repairs to the banks of the burn where the path is being eroded and habitat creation (including developing a wildlife pond). In addition, we are also going to support work to repair and re-roof the cottage in a historically sensitive way. The roof is a mixture of flag, tin, asbestos and chicken wire and is beginning to fall into disrepair. The two chimneys are also beginning to show their age and are sagging a bit and they will be rebuilt as will the gable end.

One of the gable ends. You can just about see how the stones are jutting out just below the chimney. If this is not rebuilt it will be a matter to time before the wall collapses.

The builders are due to come on site in June so with this is mind we’ve worked with The Friends of Happy Valley to empty the cottage so nothing would get damaged. It felt strange clearing out Edwin’s belongings and we were constantly reminded of the man who had created Happy Valley. Many of the items were boxed up and put into storage until such time as they can be put back. His record collection, tools, papers, photographs, some crockery, clothing and tilley lamps were all retained as was his gas cooker and some of the chairs.

One of the chimneys. You can see how they are in need of repair.

Here, are just a few photos of the cottage as it looks now. By the end of the summer the building will be sound again but will retain its unique character.