The Orkney International Science Festival, OISF, always hosts a wide variety of events and talks. This year, a packed seven days of events from 5-11 September, continues that great tradition.

The Arcs and Sparks show will be back with dramatic displays of indoor lightning and Scotland’s largest musical Tesla coil. It’s also the 200th anniversary of Lord Kelvin, who made many advances in electricity and had a love of the sea, sailing his own schooner to Madeira and beyond. There will be a look at his many achievements and his role in laying the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable.

The Festival Programme for 2024 is on the OISF website where you can find more information and book a place. Some of the events are free and suitable for all ages.

One of the talks is by Prof Paul Thompson who will describe the findings 75 years on since the start of Aberdeen University’s research on the fulmars of Eynhallow, one of the world’s longest studies of this kind.

Several of the events will take you back in time including a display of paintings of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the South Pole that saw his ship Endurance crushed in ice and its crew trapped on Elephant Island. Shackleton went with several others in a small open lifeboat to seek rescue from South Georgia, 800 miles through hurricanes and heavy seas, and then a climb through South Georgia’s icy mountains. The paintings on upholsterer’s sackcloth by the Italian artist Paola Folicaldi Suh bring a vivid impression of Shackleton, born 150 years ago, and his crew and the terrible conditions they survived.

There’s a new film on the making of the Pentland Firth range from Brims to Rackwick and the Old Man of Hoy, and the Stacks of Duncansby to Dunnet Head, with a visit too to Stroma, uninhabited since 1962.

To find the full range of events, talks, and exhibitions including the programme for schools, click on the links to the website, where you can find detailed information and updates.

Fiona Grahame