On the 28th of March the Forum welcomed its guest speaker Tony Burkitt who entertained the members with a talk titled Shetland and Orkney Islands.
He described two holidays he enjoyed in the said islands supported by his excellent photographs. The islands are unique in that they have more in common with Norway than they have with either England or Scotland.
The first holiday was to Shetland where his first stop was at the town of Scallaway where a celebration was taking place commemorating the town’s role as the base for the Shetland ‘bus’, an arrangement during World War II for accepting escapees from occupied Norway.
The rest of his time was spent visiting the many prehistoric sites, bird-watching and finding unusual wild flowers.
The second holiday was to Orkney which is equally well-provided with prehistoric sites. When on the island of Hoy he met a group of climbers attempting to climb the Old Man of Hoy. As a result he obtained some remarkable pictures taken by the climbers during their ascent.
Orkney is the site of the World War I sea anchorage Scapa Flow where the ship HMS Hampshire sank with great loss of life including General Kitchener who was on his way to a meeting in Russia.
After an open discussion Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks for a fascinating talk.