Last weekend’s Model Show in Orkney demonstrated the huge variety and passion of our model makers and collectors both in the islands and beyond. One local man who was not there was Dug Pilbed as his collection is amongst the most unusual you will  find. And yet what he collects are all around us wherever we go in Orkney.

What are these unusual and yet abundant items?

Dug Pilbed collects pot holes. Yes that’s right pot holes. Dug has become fascinated by the shape and form of the pot holes that to most of us are a curse causing drivers to ruin their tyres and for pedestrians to become drenched in dirty rain water.

The Orkney News will let Dug explain his passion in his own words:

” I like the shape of pot holes. They are all different you know. Even the depths are different. Some are quite deep and catch you unawares whilst others are so shallow they can dry up in a matter of hours.”

“And they don’t stay the same. A pot hole is ever changing. I watch it grow. What starts as a peedie pimply hole in the road surface just grows and grows.  And with the hundreds of tour buses noo and mobile homes on Orkney’s roads they can fair grow at some rate over the summer. This is great for it means by winter time when you cannae quite see them in the dark you can get a fair ding as your car wheel goes over them. It’s pretty exciting.”

To record the potholes Dug takes a series of photos and then once they reach a state where the form of them are pleasing to his eye he employs the next stage in his collecting regime. Dug Pilbed waits patiently for the pot hole to dry out and when the conditions are just right he takes a plaster cast of them so that he can appreciate the full 3 D beauty of them. This has resulted in a few near misses for Dug but the danger just adds to the passion of his collecting.

Dug has now amassed an amazing 127 plaster cast moulds of Orkney pot holes and some 17,329 photos. Plans are afoot to mount an exhibition so keep your eyes peeled for news of that. The Orkney News will be the first to report on it.

An ecstatic Dug said:

” I have loved my Orkney collection but the time has come to extend my range of exhibits. I have been informed that there are some stonkers of pot holes on Skye so I shall be off there next month to check them out”

Reporter: Fergus Graemsay