Orkney, it's my 'Ba

St Magnus Cathedral

Winner of the 2015 New Year 'Ba game

Any visit to Orkney is always an enlightening experience and I was hopeful of perhaps catching the northern lights. I have been fortunate to make half a dozen business trips since my first visit in 1993 and on a couple of occasions I have taken some holidays to travel around the islands. My reading for the last couple of days has been the Italian Chapel, the story of the bond of friendship between the Italian prisoner's of war and the island folk that endures through a chapel in refurbished Nissen huts erected and decorated by Italian craftsmen. It reminded me of the common courtesy and egalitarianism that underpins the rich community life on the islands.

The flight from Edinburgh was in one of the 14 Loganair Saab 340 turbo prop planes that serve the Scottish islands. Despite the age of the planes, now more than 20 years old, the pilots and stewards always make you feel secure, despite the often turbulent conditions. The pilots regard the planes as machines to practise their skills and the routes they fly have the worst weather in Britain. The New Zealand captain on my flight had a voice that could have been a 1950's BBC announcer, it oozed reassurance and trust. The steward asked me to take the emergency door seat next to her and we were able to chat throughout the flight, I gained the impression that Loganair was a good employer that inspired loyalty from its aircrews. With a strong tailwind we arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule, I walked off the plane to the taxi rank and reached my B&B before the estimated landing time.

I immediately dumped my bag and sauntered past the magnificent St Magnus cathedral and down to the harbour area to find somewhere serving fresh fish. Helgi's is a fine bar next to the Kirkwall Hotel and it served day fresh haddock. By chance the draft beer was Scapa, which I had first encountered at the Ayrshire Real Ale festival last year and voted for as my favourite beer. I had assumed that Highland brewing company was Inverness based but it is a local Orkney brewery. Scapa is brewed with German hops and its marketing tag line is 'goes down better than the German Fleet'.

I met an economic consultant whom I had heard of and we had another couple of rounds of beer whilst discussing the importance of localism in driving successful economies and sharing views about the extreme centralisation of public services by the Scottish Government. From planning decisions, ring fenced budgets, nhs, police, further education to scottish enterprise, it has been garnering control from the local level.The very opposite of what Donald Dewar had intended at the onset of the Scottish Parliament. His vision had been devolving not just from Westminster to Holyrood but to the most local level possible. The bar had filled for what appeared to be a ladies quiz night so we had to curtail our discussions and walk back through the empty narrow streets that are the location for the annual 'Ba game between the men of Kirkwall. They are divided into uppies and doonies, originally this referred to where they were born, but nowadays it is more often where they or their families live.

My B&B was run by the winner of the Kirkwall 'Ba game at the New Year, he was chosen by the acclaim of his team as the outstanding player. He showed me the trophy, a 'Ba that is about the size of a football but three times as heavy. Not that much throwing takes place, the game is 5 hours of packing down along the narrow streets between the cathedral and the harbour. When the doonies win, as they did on this occasion, the game requires the 'Ba to be thrown into the sea at the harbour. The winner usually follows. Kirkwall can be a wild place.

After a full day's work during which I learnt more about the state of Orkney than government inspectors could ever do in a month, I was given a lift to the airport. I spent the next three hours waiting for the final flight, the aircraft was being repaired in Edinburgh. It is not the first time I have been delayed by repairs to the aircraft  on trips to Orkney and Shetland. As we finally landed at Edinburgh and emerged from the vast and ugly maze that Edinburgh airport has become, a fellow passenger explained that he had been on the same plane in the morning and there had been a terrible smell from the engine, I was pleased that I heard this at the end of the flight.

Then just the crazy walk from airport building to the shuttle bus, passing the original bus stops, through the taxi ranks and multi story car parks to reach the new bus terminal. We had walked a good kilometre from alighting the aircraft.  I expressed my concern about the length of the walk for disabled/elderly folk to the bus driver. He totally agreed saying that it was the decision of airport management so that shuttle buses did not get any closer to the terminal than the Edinburgh trams or cars in the expensive car park. The bus waited a while and another fellow passenger eventually puffed his way onto the bus, he had been sitting across from me on the plane.  He explained that he had Parkinson's and was now finding Edinburgh airport a nightmare and major barrier to his work trips.  The ill conceived transport interchanges, circuitous routes to the gates and the time consuming problems in its new security hall have converted Edinburgh from a very good regional airport to a botched attempt at becoming an international airport.

St Magnus