20 Days of Orkney Trees #19

'Anyone who plants a tree has faith in the future', Bessie Skea in 'A Countrywoman's Diary'


On Day 7, we quoted an interview with Jenny Taylor, in which she related the history and location of Orkney tree-planting. Jenny is known in Orkney as the 'tree-wife'. (Not because she is married to a tree you understand, 'wife' is an old North-East Scotland term for a woman.)


A landscape architect by training, Jenny ended up running the Orkney Woodland Development Project alongside her main job. The group's aim was to keep an eye on all proposed tree planting projects to ensure that they fit into the landscape and do not interfere with existing wildlife or archaeological sites of interest.


'The emphasis is on native species which are all propagated from Orkney seed and cuttings and which will hopefully adapt and evolve in the face of global warming.'


Jenny is the author of the Orkney Native Tree Conservation Strategy which is available in the Orkney Room and is a great overview of the history and future of Orkney's trees. It contains this plan of the tree cover which existed in Orkney in 1995:

As can be seen, the only native woodland left, (in fact the most Northerly native woodland in Britain) is Berriedale woods on Hoy. Berriedale is about a mile North of Rackwick Bay and is not extensive. It seems to be a small scrub of trees and shrubbery confined to a small valley as can be seen in the image below:

Image from Wiki Commons

The dominant tree is Birch but Grey Willow, Eared Willow, Rowan and Aspen have also been noted.There are a few more photos on the Orkney Woodland Project page too: http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/WOODLAND/index.asp?pageid=595130

At the end of the Orkney Native Tree Conservation Strategy, a number of possible future projects are listed. One fascinating area of research is whether or not the Berriedale woodland is 'moving', Birnam wood-style due to Birch trees regenerating on its edge.

If you feel inspired by all this tree talk and want to plant your own trees then you could consult our copy of 'Tree Planting in The Orkney Islands' in the Orkney Room. Those of you who are not Orkney residents can visit the Woodland Trust website for some advice.

No space to plant a tree of your own? No problem. You can plant trees from the comfort of your laptop by supporting these charities:

Woodland Trust

Trees For Life

Trees For Cities

Not far from Robin's bonfire site an apple-seed took root. I watched it through the summer, a green twig with two leaves, ...Yesterday I saw it again, a mere dry red-budded matchstick with one fallen leaf lying beside it...the thought came to me of the wise man who, when asked by his friend what his actions would be if he heard the world was to end tomorrow, replied: "I would still plant my little apple tree." Using a tin lid I scooped up the seedling and transplanted it in a sheltered corner of the garden; a very tiny apple tree, but a symbol, and a hope.

Bessie Skea in 'A Countrywoman's Calendar'

Information taken from:

Living Orkney #7

Tree Planting in Orkney published by Orkney Islands Council

Growth in Britain's Most Northerly Woodland by Chapman and Crawford

Orkney Native Tree Conservation Stratedgy by Jenny Taylor

A Countrywoman's Diary and A Countrywoman's Calendar, both by Bessie Skea.

20 Days of Orkney Trees #18

Just a couple of tree snippets today from our research this month:


First of all, even the birds became concerned about the lack of forests and began planting trees on Hoy...

Orkney Herald 10th February 1926

... and second, Stromness used to have a big tree too! Until 1926 that is...

Orkney Herald 24th February 1926

We checked the Stromness Town Council minutes for that time, but there was no mention of the tree removal. There is much talk about work being done in John Street to strengthen walls etc., so perhaps the tree was removed as part of that project.


We looked for a picture of the tree but unsuccessfully. Here is a lovely photo of tree-lined lovers' lane in Stromness instead:



Robertson collection 4596

20 Days of Orkney Trees #16

We have been looking back through the mists of time for the last 15 posts (as is our wont), but now let us whisk you into the future, Doc Brown style! No flux capacitors required, simply allow your eyes to drift down the page and alight upon the diagram below. It is a plan for the grounds of Kirkwall's new Balfour Hospital.


Existing trees are shown in black and white and are surrounded by proposed plantings of various trees, shrubs and hedgerows plus herbaceous wetlands and ornamental water lilies. The green area at the top right is to be planted with apple trees and soft fruit bushes whilst the ponds are to be surrounded by a 'woodland glade' containing rowan, whitebeam and birch trees planted with woodland wildflower.


We can only see it in our mind's eye right now, but it's looking pretty great to us. The name of the site is to be Arcadia Park:

Orkney Archive Reference D1/1616

20 Days of Orkney Trees #15

Orkney Herald dated 25th December 1935

An excerpt from the Orkney Herald today, in which the council discussed the removal of some trees from the grounds of the Earl's Palace as they were obscuring the building in photographs taken by visitors. The Earl's Palace was the only building of its type in Scotland and was therefore popular with tourists.


As you can see from the Tom Kent image below, the grounds were full of trees:

Tom Kent negative no. 2627

But are these not beautiful photographs?:

Tom Kent negative no. 2630

Tom Kent negative no. 2649



The chairman professed himself to be 'very much attached to every tree that grows in Orkney' but the Dean of Guild, although 'loath to see any tree taken away', pointed out that many had been planted earlier in the year for the jubilee. A Ha! This must have been why the saplings were being planted in the willows area by be-hatted officials in Day 4 of our tree-tastic advent.


The occasion in question was the silver jubilee of George V and there was a brief mention of the trees being planted earlier on in the year:

Orkney herald dated 8th May 1935



It was decided to allow the removal of 6 or 7 trees as they were thought to be on their way out due to old age. The clerk guessed this age to be about 100 and said that his grandfather, Dr Logie had planted them.

20 Days of Orkney Trees #14

Most of the archive staff are not Orkney-born and so we often ask our Very Orcadian Colleague to enlighten us when puzzled by local dialect, confused by 'Orcadian ways' or curious about growing up in the County.

I asked VOC about his early tree memories and he talked about a small wood being planted outside his school. Said wood is now full of hefty -trunked trees but our colleague remembers them being 'nothing but sticks'.

I asked what year this could have been was told to mind my own beeswax. Undeterred, I looked through the Phoenix Photographic collection (Dougie Shearer's archive) and found this great shot of all the tiny, newly planted saplings with the path winding through them. I think this photo dates from the early 1960s but don't tell VOC I said that...

20 Days of Orkney Trees #13



Tom Kent image negative no. 2461

Another 'big house' garden today. Papdale house stands in central Kirkwall behind its namesake school. The children of the school have the use of a walled garden, known as 'the Secret Garden' which was attached to the old house. Home to many mature trees and allotments, you can read more about the garden, which has recently been renovated by Orkney Blide Trust here: https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/06/29/orkneys-secret-creative-garden/




Papdale house was built in 1807 by Malcolm Laing, (Advocate, historian and M.P. for Orkney from 1807-1812) and, in August 1814, he entertained an old friend from his legal days, Sir Walter Scott. As noted, in the article above, there is a rumour mentioned that Sir Walter was responsible for the avenues of Laburnam trees within the garden. He was only in Kirkwall for a couple of days, so it seems unlikely that he actually planted them himself. He did, however, note the scarcity of trees, so perhaps strong hints were made...

'All vegetables grow here freely in the gardens and there are one or two attempts at trees where they are sheltered by walls. How ill they succeed may be conjectured by our bringing with us a quantity of brushwood, commissioned by Malcolm Laing from Aberbrothock, to be sticks to his pease.'

Walter Scott in Northern Lights

Papdale walled garden on the 1902 OS map.



Malcolm Laing's childhood home was a town house in Kirkwall and was, according to his brother Samuel Laing's biographer Ray Fereday, 'remarkable in Samuel's youth for having three trees growing in its front yard. The house survives, with a ground-floor extension for two shops, and one decrepit sycamore remains, long known as the big tree.'


Earlier, in the same book, Samuel himself remembers the three trees as being plane trees:

'We lived in that house in Kirkwall a little below the broad street which is distinguished by two or three middling sized Plane Trees, which were planted by my father and are almost the only trees in the country.'

Perhaps the sycamore was planted after the Laings' residence.

The author of the preface to Samuel's autobiography, William P. L. Thomson was not just a historian, he also served as the rector of Kirkwall Grammar School from 1971-1990, living in Papdale House and, with his wife, tending the garden and its trees.

An aerial view of the Kirkwall Grammar School can be seen below, with the garden just behind it:

This photo was taken in the mid 70s and the walled area does seem quite sparsely treed compared to the garden today. The woodlands either side, however, seem in fine fettle and have been added to recently by pupils of the Grammar school.

Information taken from:

Northern Lights by Sir Walter Scott

The Autobiography of Samuel Laing of Kirkwall, edited & supplemented by R. P. Fereday with a preface by W.P.L. Thomson

Kirkwall Grammar School - From Sang School to Comprehensive, by W.P.L. Thomson

Who Was Who in Orkney by W. S. Hewison

Orkney's Secret Creative Garden in The Orkney News by Fiona Grahame







20 Days of Orkney Trees #9

Still looking at trees planted around 'big houses', today we bring you Orkney Archive Reference D15/21/21 which includes a couple of plans of trees and plants in the old garden at Orphir House, Orphir, c.1900

If you click on the plans to enlarge them, you can see that trees planted include planes, apple, ash, elm and rowan.

The collection also includes rubbings made of initials which had been carved into the garden's trees in the 1870s:

The OS map below shows the extent of the gardens as surveyed in 1900.

Panting for Planting

Plan of old garden at Orphir House, Gyre.

Well hello there archive-I-stumbled-upon-today! Could you delight us any more? I think not.

a) It is a beautiful spring day and you are a plan of trees and list of plants for the garden at Orphir House (which was rebuilt in 1886.)

 List of plants growing in the layer rockery at East Cottage on 5 May 1895.

b)You are the record of the old garden, a garden past, which makes us feel mournful and wistful... which we love.

Plan of trees in the old garden.

c) As great fans of luuuurve, and romance the rubbings taken of initials carved into trees made us squeal with delight.

Rubbings of initials carved into the bark of trees.

Well done Orkney Archive Reference D15/21/21. A sterling job.