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SSEN Orkney Transmission Connection and Infrastructure Project Consultation

Orkney Heritage Society see SSEN’s (Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks) proposed works as a threat to Orkney’s heritage. The current proposals to create an Orkney electricity transmission network would see miles of tall poles and a very obtrusive electricity substation near Finstown.

We are all in favour of renewable energy and a properly designed network to take this energy out of Orkney. Climate change is one of the greatest threats to Orkney’s heritage and we fear the world – and Orkney – is running out of time to combat it.

We have put forward alternatives to SSEN. These involve a shorter route, across Scapa Flow, underground cabling on the entire route as opposed to part of it and much better design of the Finstown substation.

 

 

 

 

Orkney Heritage Society’s concerns deepened as a result of the consultation events held by SSEN in the last week of September about the proposed substation at Finstown and the overhead cables. The Society’s Board will meet mid-month but those members delegated to attend the consultation wish to make clear their concerns.

Despite the Society making clear representations and suggestions to SSEN following the last consultation in July the proposed sheds in the latest design would be more visible than that displayed three months ago.  

We had been hoping to see that SSEN had taken the points being made about the need to lower the level of the site before building the substation. Last week we saw that this was not the case and we remain concerned that the consultation is a sham and the people of Orkney are being ignored.

We hope members will support our campaign to see the proposals modified. We would welcome any feedback and help with the campaign.

To email OHS click here.

The SSEN website has more detail on the project and they have a feedback form here.

OHS letter to members 16 Sep 2018 click here.

OHS Media Release 1 Oct 2018 click here.

We hope to see you at our next public meeting, on Thursday 15th November 2018 at 7 pm in the St. Magnus Centre.

This is our AGM followed by a talk by Richard Shearer on Orcadians who lost their lives in World War I.

Launch of New Orkney Antiquarian Journal Volume 8 – St Magnus Centre 4th September 2018 7.00pm

Volume 8 celebrates 50 years of Orkney Heritage Society and is a tribute to the historian William P L Thomson.

This new OHS publication will be launched at a special event on Tuesday 4th September 2018 at 7.00pm at the St. Magnus Centre, Kirkwall.

The 8th New Orkney Antiquarian Journal commemorates two significant milestones in the historiography of Orkney: the death of Willie Thomson in 2016 and the 50th Anniversary of the Orkney Heritage Society in 2018.

All but one of the authors of the papers were either peers or former pupils of Willie Thomson, or are past or present Chairs of the Society. The exception is Else Mundal, whose contribution makes a trilogy of new perspectives on early 12th-century Orkney.

Barbara Crawford offers some fresh interpretations on the monastic context of the Brough of Birsay. Sarah Jane Gibbon offers fresh interpretations of Willie Thomson’s 2002 paper on the Ladykirk Stone. Else Mundal offers a fresh interpretation of the life of Earl Rognvaldr. Leslie Burgher traces the history of the Hall of Clestrain. James Irvine updates a paper on Sandwick’s agricultural history first written for one of Willie’s whiteboard courses. Jocelyn Rendall adds to Willie’s research on the Little General in India. Sheila Garson writes up the role of women in agriculture in Shapinsay. Sheena Wenham edits the diaries of two Orkney ladies during the Second World War. Peter Anderson recollects his visits to Orkney in the 1950s. Ray Fereday records his memories of the saving of Papdale House and the founding of the Orkney Heritage Society. Spencer Rosie brings the history of the Society up to the present day. Finally Brian Smith supplements his obituary of Willie Thomson with perceptive insights into some of his publications.

The volume concludes with one of Willie Thomson’s many innovations, ‘Recent Books and Papers’.

For more details and to buy your copy, click here.

 

Jessie Cumloquoy, Birsay Postmistress and the loss of HMS “Hampshire”

James Irvine, editor of HMS Hampshire: A Century on Myths and Mysteries Unravelled, has recently been in touch with Jock Cumloquoy, great nephew of Jessie Cumloquoy, the Birsay Postmistress in 1916.  She had  seen a large warship was in distress and went to the Post Office to be ready to send a telegram from the territorial soldiers on lookout duty to the authorities in Kirkwall and Stromness.

Jock has kindly forwarded this remarkable portrait of his great aunt. Jessie had the first message transmitted before Hampshire had sunk!

(For a more detailed account, see p.17 of the book.)

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