The 2026 Orkney International Science Festival has an array of diverse and wonderful events for this its 36th year.
For our readers interested in astronomy.
Dr Vassilios Spathopoulos will describe the constellations that guided Odysseus over open seas, and a solar eclipse which he says, “may let us date the fall of Troy to the exact day.”
Prof. Andy Taylor of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh will show images from the Euclid space telescope of the most distant stars ever seen.
In more down to earth matters –
Prof. Claudia de Rham will describe new ideas about the nature of gravity which have led to her work being highlighted across the media. Her own fascination with gravity has included training as a diver and a pilot and going through several stages of the astronaut selection process.
Paralympic hand cycling gold medallist Karen Darke will describe some of the journeys she has undertaken by arm power alone, including the ascent of El Capitan and skiing across Antarctica.
“Ability,” she says, “is a state of mind not body. We can all learn to be our own alchemist, to transform unwanted emotions or experiences into gold.”
There will be a look at a journey that John Rae made in later years, after his return from the Arctic with news of the fate of the Franklin expedition. His great-great-grandniece Jane Hamilton is coming from Canada to tell how the pressures on him became for a time too much and then a new challenge opened up. UHI researcher Fleur Ward will tell the story of the work he carried out, to survey a possible northern route for a transatlantic telegraph cable – from Shetland to Faroe, Iceland and Greenland. A musical perspective on the story will be developed by the musical ensembles Nordic Viola and Aldubáran, in a concert in St Magnus Cathedral with new music by composers from Scotland, Faroe, and Greenland.
Another concert will look at the theme of memory in words and music, and a third concert will mark the achievement of Prof. Hans Kosterlitz at the University of Aberdeen in the discovery of endorphins, with Orkney Camerata and Orkney Chamber Choir and the premiere of a new work by local composer Gemma McGregor. The musical programme also includes evening events in the Orkney Club and the visit of a choir from the Mearns, and fuller details of the various musical events will be announced soon.
The venues this year will include St Mary’s in Burwick, for a look at an old tradition of storytelling, where over 4,000 stories are passed on from one generation to the next. Another new venue will be Graemsay Community Centre, for the story of transport old and new, from the days of the Orkney yole to the new Royal Mail drone delivery service. An evening in Hoy Heritage Centre will see a new film on the glens of Hoy and their formation by ice, made by Selena S. Kuzman and narrated by geologist Dr Adrian Hall.
A second new film by her will look at Swona, on the edge of the Pentland Firth’s tides, today uninhabited but with evidence of five thousand years of human settlement from Neolithic times.
Help for the work of study and restoration is now being given by Gordonstoun School through annual expeditions, with UHI archaeological collaboration, and the film includes a look at clues to a possible early Christian site on the island. Swona’s cattle, which is isolation have gradually rediscovered ancestral herd patterns of behaviour, will be featured in a presentation with William and Alexander Annal joined by John Copland, Prof. Stephen Hall, and naturalist Penny Martin. The cattle will also be the theme of an exhibition in the Orkney Museum developed by a collaboration between Brighton-based photographer Josh Spindler and UHI archaeologist Prof. Ingrid Mainland.
Prof. Mainland is one of the speakers in a day of presentations of the latest discoveries from the study of the finds at the Ness of Brodgar. She will look at the picture emerging from the vast amount of animal bones unearthed, of the animals themselves and their diet – cattle and sheep, pigs and red deer, and dogs as well. Assoc. Prof. Scott Timpany will describe the many charred seeds, from barley and weeds to crab apple pips and hazel nuts. Prof. Mark Edmonds will look at the quality of the stonework, from the piers in walls to the evidence for flagstone roofs. Site director Nick Card will bring the latest news of the conclusions from this summer’s special Time Team dig, and also lead a walk over the site to look at its setting in the landscape.
The Festival takes place over the seven days from 3-9 September, and the full programme and ticket links are on its website www.oisf.org.
