A Letter from North Ronaldsay 1990-1999

In 1990 Orkney islander Ian Scott wrote his first article for The Orcadian newspaper under the title "A Letter from North Ronaldsay". This and subsequent articles document community life in the most northerly island of the Orkney (Scotland) archipelago. Over a span of nearly thirty-five years, Ian's musings of times and ways past and present combine to create an unusual memoir as well as a valuable archive preserving the social and natural history of the Scottish island of North Ronaldsay.

Over the decades, Ian's letters have allowed us to glimpse the changing world of this island played out against a backdrop of land, sea and sky. His letters reflect the turning of seasons, they note the activities of wildlife and humans alike and astutely describe traditional rural work carried out on both land and sea, work such as twisting simmans rope, sheep dyke building and lobster fishing.

Culturally more Nordic than Scottish, the North Ronaldsay community cling to as many strong old traditions as they can, though many are irretrievably lost. The passing of time has changed the way these islanders live, though much of the independent Viking spirit remains. Ian reminisces about these changes with poignancy and recalls with great tenderness generations that came before.

Combined with a large selection of personal photographs gleaned from former times, Ian's often poetic descriptions in these letters paint a charming view of island life without neglecting harsher realities. Ian Scott's letters from North Ronaldsay capture a changing world from the unique viewpoint of an island man whose knowledge and memories leave him with one foot planted fondly in the past and yet able to observe the present with a keen eye.

About the author:

Island man

Ian Scott was born in North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of Scotland's Orkney Islands, in 1940. Ian studied at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen from 1957-62, earning a postgraduate degree in sculpture. In time, he returned home to reap a traditional living from land and sea in the place of his birth. Ian continues his work as a painter and sculptor from North Ronaldsay.

Ian's public works include the monuments to the lost crews of the Longhope and Fraserburgh lifeboats and the statue of Arctic explorer Dr John Rae in Stromness. His busts of the artist Stanley Cursiter and the writer and poet George Mackay Brown are in the Orkney Library & Archive. Ian Scott's sculptures, along with his oil and watercolour paintings, are widespread in both public and private collections. The whole of Ian's work reflects his deep affection for his island home and the rocky shores that continue to inspire him.

This book - something of a memoir as well as a social history of North Ronaldsay life in the 20th and 21st centuries -is the first in a planned series preserving nearly 35 years of Ian Scott's unique viewpoint of island life on the Scottish Orkney island of North Ronaldsay.

Prior work: 34+ years of A Letter from North Ronaldsay, as a column for The Orcadian newspaper, Orkney Islands, Scotland

Contributor biography: Peter Titley served as President of the Rare (sheep) Breeds Survival Trust and asa Chairman of the North Ronaldsay Sheep Fellowship. He helped set up the Orkney Sheep Foundation, which raises funds to protect the ancient sheep dyke of Orkney's most northerly island, North Ronaldsay- an important element in the conservation and survival of this rare, native breed of sheep. Peter was well-known at agricultural and countryside events throughout the UK, and maintained a conservationsmallholding for several decades.