Orkney Library &amp; Archive

We have an announcement. Due to the current windy weather, today's Mobile Library visit to Evie, Rendall and Firth has been postponed. 💨 We will now be operating this service THIS FRIDAY (30th October) at all the usual times. Apologies for any inconvenience.

It's nearly the end of October, the clocks have gone back, and once again we are moving steadily into the darker months. 🌙 If you need a little more light in your life then don't forget that Orkney Library & Archive have a collection of loanable WINTERING WELL KITS! 💡

These are free loanable kits containing a portable plug-in therapy lamp, along with other resources to help people who struggle during the winter months including printed resources and access to a FREE online course which has been designed to support people affected by SAD. 🌈

orkneylibrary.org.ukWintering Well KitsYou can now borrow a Wintering Well Kit from Orkney Library & Archive which could offer help to people who struggle with the darker months of the year. Winter can be a tough time when the sun only…

The kits can be reserved online or by contacting us, and can be borrowed for up to 4 weeks. Find out more about the Wintering Well project on our website at: orkneylibrary.org.uk/wintering-we...

But to the tune of 'Who's That Girl' by Madonna. 🐦‍⬛

It's getting close to spooky book time of year. 🎃🦇 What will you be reading this #Halloween and what is your favourite spooky book of all time? 🎃

It's a bright, pleasant day in #Orkney and #BookyMcBookface is away on the ferry to the beautiful island of Shapinsay! 📚 If you're lucky enough to be in Shapinsay today then go and say hello! 👋

'What day is it?' asked Pooh. 'It’s our BIRTHDAY.' squeaked Piglet. 'My favourite day.' said Pooh. Happy 100th BIRTHDAY to Pooh and the gang! 🎂🎉 Pooh and his friends first appeared on the 14th October 1926 in #WinnieThePooh by A.A. Milne. #WinnieThePooh100 #onthisday

This month our #LEGO display cases have been crammed with creatively cosy models for our COSY SPACES #OrkneyLibraryLego theme! 🪴☕️📚🔥 All made by library visitors using our Lego collection. Thanks to everyone who made us a model! ❤️ Our next theme is MONSTER MASH! 👻💀🎃👽

It's Monday, it's October, and the nights are drawing in so it's time for the new season of SEWING CIRCLE - our library hand sewing group that meets every 2nd Monday across the darker months! 🧵🪡 Everyone is welcome to come along! Find out more at: orkneylibrary.org.uk/sewing-circle/

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey. I've been for a walk, our balls are cold today. They'd be dry and warm if they were in L.A. #SaturdayMorning dreaming on an #Orkney autumn day. 🍂

It's #HeritageCareersWeek which aims to showcase the wide variety of careers available in the heritage sector. ❤️ We've made a video showing some of the many, varied jobs carried out by Library and Archive Assistants in a day at Orkney Library & Archive. #HeritageCareersWeek

Orkney Library staff doing their bit for the #WeeRead today. ❤️ Join us by reading something (anything!) today and enjoy the incredible benefits that reading gives you. 📚 Find out more and pledge to read now at: weeread.scot

Today it's the #WeeRead - a campaign to get people all across Scotland READING TOGETHER on 7th October! Join us by reading something today - reading for just 6 minutes can reduce stress and improve mental health! Find out more and pledge to read at: weeread.scot

It's Monday, it's October, and the nights are drawing in so it's time for the new season of YAP & YARN - our library knitting and crochet group that meets every 2nd Monday across the darker months! 🧶 Everyone is welcome to come along! Find out more at: orkneylibrary.org.uk/yap-yarn/

On a dark dark hill there was a dark dark town. In the dark dark town there was a dark dark library. And in the dark dark library... there was a big skeleton, a little skeleton and a dog skeleton! Stromness Library is ready for #Halloween with Steph's fabulous #Funnybones art!

'So that's the book finished. All you need now is a title.' 'I was thinking about calling it "DIE." 'Just DIE? Nothing else?' 'No. Why?' 'Hey don't get me wrong, it's a good title. I'm just not sure that it's clear enough that it means a MURDER story.' 'So what do you suggest...?'

a short poem name like when we meet a bovine and we say 'hi coo' #NationalPoetryDay #Haiku

There's only a week to go until the #WeeRead - a campaign to get 50,000 people across Scotland ALL READING TOGETHER on Wednesday 7th October! Reading for just 6 minutes a day has been shown to reduce stress and improve mental health so pledge to read now at: www.weeread.scot/

Happy 479th Birthday to Miguel Cervantes who was born #onthisday in 1547 🎂 In his most famous work Don Quixote, the title character charges at windmills, mistaking them for monstrous giants with swords, so in tribute we're all going up Burgar Hill in #Orkney to tilt at the wind turbines. 🎉

Scottish followers - Don't forget that 7th October is the #WeeRead - a campaign to get 50,000 people across Scotland pledging to READ! 📚 So far more than 31,000 have pledged so why not join them? Find out more AND pledge to read at: weeread.scot

September 2026 marks 360 years since the Great Fire of London which took place in September 1666. It also reminds us of that time we found a letter in the Archive dated 1661, sent from #Orkney to an address in Pudding Lane, London - the very place the fire began. 🔥

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Though the letter was sent five years before the Great Fire of London, it was sent very close to where the fire later started. Peter Winchester captained several ships at the time and the letter was sent to him from Thomas Buchanan who lived on the island of Shapinsay, #Orkney.

A few years ago our Palaeography Group transcribed the letter - you can find out more about it and read the transcription on our Archive Blog at: orkneyarchive.blogspot.com/2021/10/grea...

It was addressed to Peter Winchester who was staying at the King's Head, Pudding Lane in Fish Street London. On 2nd September 1666 Samuel Pepys wrote '300 houses have been burned down tonight by the fire we saw, and that it was now burning down all Fishstreet by London Bridge.'

Looks like Tom Petty has been messing about with our displays again

Happy 130th Birthday to F. Scott Fitzgerald who was born #onthisday in 1896. This is also your reminder that if editor Maxwell Perkins had not convinced Fitzgerald to change the title, The Great Gatsby was going to be called 'Trimalchio in West Egg.' Which really isn't as good.

Back in the old days in #Orkney, the thing that crows were *most* terrified of was being called a cad or a bounder by a dapper gentleman in a top hat. 🎩 #PhotographicArchives

22 Sept

Today is #HobbitDay because Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were both born on September 22nd. Normally we'd shire a hobbit pun or two but it might just feel like a tolkien gesture and we don't want to embarrass our elves. Anyway it's a good day to come and boromir #Tolkien books. 📚

Tomorrow (19th September) is #TalkLikeAPirateDay and your annual reminder that when we talk the way we talk when we're talking like a pirate, it's because of a film that was based on a book, inspired by an earlier book, inspired by a real life pirate from #Orkney! ARRR! 🏴‍☠️👇

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THEN, in 1950 Disney released a movie version of TREASURE ISLAND starring Robert Newton as Long John Silver. Newton famously portrayed Silver with a West Country accent which has gone on to influence how people think ALL pirates talked every since. 🦜

And THAT is the reason why we all go ARRR! (etc) on #TalkLikeAPirateDay. Because of film, that was based on a book, inspired by an earlier book, inspired by the real life #Orkney pirate John Gow. 🏴‍☠️ ARRR! 🦜

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Gow was executed for piracy at Execution Dock in 1725 and an account of his piratical career was written by famous author and journalist Daniel Defoe. It has since been reprinted but in the #Orkney Archives we have one of only five known surviving copies of the 1725 edition. 🏴‍☠️

Sir Walter Scott heard the story of John Gow when he visited #Orkney in 1814, and later used Gow as the basis of the character Captain Cleveland in his 1822 novel THE PIRATE. In turn this novel influenced Robert Louis Stevenson when he wrote TREASURE ISLAND in the 1880s. 🏴‍☠️

This salty looking seadog is an 18th century pirate called John Gow, who came from Stromness in #Orkney. In 1725 after a short career in piracy off the Iberian Peninsula, Gow and his ship returned to Orkney but was captured and taken to London for trial.

17 Sept

There were no cats in the car park this morning but there's a wholly unanticipated collared dove.

16 Sept

This month our #LEGO display cases were full of fun and fabulous farming fare for our #OrkneyLibraryLego AROUND THE FARM theme! 👨‍🌾🚜🐖🐄 All made by library users using our #Lego collection. Thank you to everyone who made us a model! ❤️ Our next theme is COSY SPACES! 🔥🪴📚☕️

15 Sept

You all know #BookyMcBookface but SOON we'll also have the #BookyMcNooks - 3 brand new portable library kits that will bring even more books and reading resources to communities across Orkney. Coming in Spring 2027. Find out more at: beta.orkney.gov.uk/latest-news/...

15 Sept

This new project has been made possible because Orkney Library and Archive has been awarded funding from the Public Library Improvement Fund (PLIF), administered by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) on behalf of the Scottish Government.

15 Sept

Happy Birthday to @AgathaChristie - born #otd (15th September) in 1890. 🎉 She said that she came up with her ingenious detective plots by sitting in an old-fashioned bathtub eating apples. It was a core part of her technique. She got the seed of an idea, then fleshed it out.

12 Sept

It's eight years tomorrow since we posted on Twitter that Sting had been in to return his books.

Orkney Library & Archive is supporting WEE READ - a national reading moment where people across Orkney are invited to join with people all across Scotland in celebrating the joy of reading this October. Make your pledge to read now at weeread.scot

Just six minutes of reading has been shown to reduce stress, so imagine the difference when thousands of people across Scotland take a moment to read together. Whether it’s a whole book or a few pages, a comic, magazine, newspaper, audiobook, poem or recipe. Every bit of reading counts!

Anyone in Scotland can pledge so sign up wherever you are, but we'd be delighted to get as many Orkney folk signing up as possible. So if you're an individual, family, group or class who enjoys reading then pledge to read now at weeread.scot ❤️

weeread.scot Wee Read

We've just found this chap living in our craft box how's your day going?

If Pixar want to use this in a new Toy Story movie we are open to offers

9 Sept

Today is #NationalTeddyBearDay which reminded us of that time we found this old book full of terribly terrifying teddies to traumatise and terrorise. Sweet dreams everyone. Don't have nightmares.