The majority of workers in the Hudsons Bay Company, up until the mid-19th century, originated in the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland. Historians have characterized these workers as an homogenous groupthrifty, sober, suited to work in cold weather and in the boats. Most worked for the Company for several years, saved their money and returned to their home islands. My research into the lives and work of the Orkneymen of the Saskatchewan district, however, has revealed that a significant portion of these men remained in the North West. They adapted well to the environment of Ruperts Land, acquired useful skills including learning aboriginal languages, and, above all, many married native women and raised families, ultimately putting down roots in western Canada. My thesis focuses on this subset of men and the contribution they made to life in the early Canadian West.

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This thesis explores the role of folklore in creating an online Orkney place, referring to key literature from the discipline of folklore and the study of place, including the study of island places. The research introduces the concept and theory of Virtually Filtered Places: places created in the digital environment which are related to identifiable physical places in the non-digital environment. Such virtually filtered places are created by multiple users, meaning they are subject to compounded subjectivity; and are created across a range of digital platforms, meaning a virtually filtered place is one which has a range of possibilities and multiples depending on the nature of the data collection, including which platforms are analysed. This theory is grounded in the fields of space and place research, and of potential relevance to a wide variety of disciplines which focus on the interaction and engagement of users in digital environments which are linked to places in non-digital environments. The research develops a methodological approach grounded in digital ethnography, focussing upon three case studies using the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. As a participant observer on Twitter, the researcher hosted a Twitter Hour discussing the #OrkneySupernatural, and hosted three Hosted Hashtags on Twitter, discussing three key themes that arose from early thematic analysis: the physical environment (#OrkneyAndPlace), the human environment (#OrkneyAndPeople), and the online environment (#OrkneyOnline). The researcher collated data from Facebook Groups and Pages as an invisible observer. Following iterative thematic analysis, nine sub-themes were identified. Referring to users' utilisation of platform-specific functionality and the themes and sub-themes identified, the creation of space and place relating to Orkney in the online environment is discussed, specifically considering the role that branding, media, and people play in the creation of place. The research considers the role of folklore in creating an online Orkney place (or a virtual Orkney), focussing on the importance of both the physical environment and the human environment. Finally, the features of this virtual Orkney are discussed, concluding with a proposal for how to approach the study of similar virtually filtered places. The research offers potential ways in which to investigate emerging and developing virtual places, and what folklore as a discipline can contribute to such studies in the context of place and the fluctuating digital environments in which these places are created.

There have been a number of influences on arrangements for CME for GPs in the UK since the NHS was launched in 1948, the most profound being the 1990 introduction of the Postgraduate Education Allowance. This massively increased the market for GP education, but no mechanism was put in place to ensure quality or fulfilment of individual need. Despite increasing interest in self-directed learning. the PGEA appeared to discriminate against reflection and planning as part of the adult learning cycle. The PGEA also discriminated against GPs who did not enjoy easy access to the evolving market. In 1994, money was released by SCPMDE to increase the number of GP Associate Adviser sessions in North-East Scotland, Orkney and Shetland. This opportunity was used to appoint a team of CME Advisers to work with GPs to help increase elements of reflection and planning in their learning. In defining and developing their role, an opportunity arose to research four different facets of their work, ie: 1. A description of how the CME Advisers came to be doing what they eventually did, their tools and their operational and support systems. 2. An analysis of participation, or participants views on the work of CME and the work of developing a Personal Learning Plan. 3. A cost analysis of the process. 4. The views of GP Educators nationally on the future of CME for GPs, examining the context into which the work in North-East Scotland would fit. The research showed that it was possible to develop acceptable, effective and enduring tools and systems to support the process, which did not diminish ownership or self-direction. The participants valued periodic review and planning meetings with a trusted peer. The process was cost efficient and largely achievable within existing budgets. The concept was commensurate with GP educators' views of how CME should develop nationally.

This thesis addresses the question of an impoverished record for the Orcadian Bronze Age. It presents the first comprehensive synthesis of this period, which is overshadowed by its neighbours. Factors that influenced the formation of the archaeological record in Orkney are investigated. The effects of agricultural improvement on archaeological survival, not previously examined in detail in an Orcadian context, are shown to have been particularly significant. It is found that destruction of sites of all periods took place on a large scale, especially in the 19th century, and that this went largely unrecorded, which has not hitherto been fully appreciated or understood. Critical evaluation of the chronology and scale of land improvement is shown to be of particular importance in understanding archaeological distributions of Bronze Age evidence. Areas of archaeological survival of Bronze Age relict landscapes in largely marginal areas are identified and the implications of site densities in these landscapes are examined. The apparently high density of Bronze Age occupation in these marginal areas may be a result of population pressure or social control. Burial-related evidence is examined in light of the changing burial practices in the late 3rd millennium BC and thereafter. The exotic artefactual assemblage, especially metalwork, in both funerary and non-funerary contexts, is examined to discover possible explanations for its nature. Typologies of Bronze Age settlements are proposed and their developmental trajectories and relationships are investigated. It is found likely that some at least of Orkney’s numerous broch sites could be the culmination of a multi-period settlement with roots in the second or third millennia BC. It is proposed that excavation of such sites may identify remains of the ‘missing’ high-status sites of the Orcadian Bronze Age. The chronology, function and distribution of burnt mounds, and their relationship with settlements and funerary sites is examined. It is found that there is an association between burnt mounds and settlements, and burnt mounds and funerary sites, in Orkney’s relict landscapes, and that this relationship may be applicable to the wider Orkney landscape. A dearth of excavated and published sites, lack of diagnostic artefact assemblages and concomitant lack of chronological resolution are found to present difficulties in treating ‘the Bronze Age’ as anything other than a unitary period in Orkney. Understanding of Bronze Age Orkney suffers from limited excavation. There are no obvious high-status settlements and an absence of artefact types found contemporarily elsewhere in the British Isles. The current paradigm of the fragmentation of society at the end of the Neolithic inferred from this is examined and the evidence found to be equivocal. Alternative explanations for the apparent discontinuity exhibited at some sites towards the end of the 3rd millennium cal BC are explored. Recommendations for future research are made.

Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of St Andrews, June 2009.

The Orcadian coastline is characterised by a high energy paraglacial environment, where remobilisation of abundant glacigenic sediment has favoured the building of numerous barriers. To date, there has been little work on either patterns of relative sea-level change or coastal processes affecting Orkney during the Flandrian. The present research provides an understanding of Flandrian coastal environmental changes in three areas of Mainland Orkney. Detailed morphological, lithostratigraphical and biostratigraphical work was undertaken and has revealed distinctive back-barrier sequences which illustrate the diversity of coastal responses to complex interactions between relative sea-level trends, sediment supply and coastal configuration. Scapa Bay provides direct evidence of relative sea-level rise and coastal retreat during the early Flandrian. There, a freshwater marsh was flooded by the sea c.8.5 kyrs BP at c.-5.4 m 0.0. Abundant sediment supply from nearby drift cliffs was remobilised inland by wave refraction before c.7 kyrs BP, and led to the formation and rapid progradation of swash-aligned barriers (SAB) across the valley mouth. By c.6.6 kyrs BP, direct marine influence was restricted in the back-barrier area, although saltmarshes persisted until c.5 kyrs BP. The enclosed lagoon was then progressively infilled by terrestrial sediments and a freshwater marsh was formed. The multiple barrier complex at Scapa Bay demonstrates land progradation against the backdrop of long-term rising relative sea level. This was facilitated by continuous sediment supply in a sheltered embayment. At the Bay of Carness, a single SAB was built during the early Flandrian. Between c.6.5 and 5.4 kyrs BP, marine influence was at its highest and a saltmarsh formed between c.-3.2 and -2.57 m 0.0. No direct marine flooding has, however, been recorded at the site. Later, a brackish lagoon occupied the coastal depression indicating a rising water table. This lagoon was gradually infilled by terrestrial sediments as soil erosion occurred in the the catchment. Slow inland migration of the SAB during the late Flandrian has been related to complex barrier and lagoon interactions in a context of sediment starvation. The sheltered setting of the site enabled the barrier to keep cohesiveness throughout its inland translocation. However, its present morphology shows clear signs of instability. The Bay of Skaill is the most exposed and dynamic coastal environment of the sites investigated. Abundant sand supply led to the building of a dune ridge during the middle Flandrian and to the pending of a freshwater loch in the back-dune area. By c.6.1 kyrs BP, aeolian processes became dominant and the dune ridge progressively migrated landward, while machair developed inland. After c.4.4 kyrs BP, the bay was gradually formed as the dune ridge retreated to its present position. Moreover, a SAB developed and eroded the seaward dune edge. At present, the SAB is migrating rapidly inland due to sediment starvation and exposure to storm activity. The Flandrian vegetational history around the three sites was also investigated. This accorded with that already established for the islands. Herbaceous vegetation was initially dominant, although a Betula-Corylus woodland, including Salix, Alnus and possibly Quercus, developed during the early Flandrian. This reached its maximum extent c.5 kyrs BP. Anthropogenic impact from Neolithic onwards is believed to have significantly affected the landscape studied, primarily via woodland clearance and mixed farming practices. Between c.4 and 2.5 kyrs BP, a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors led to the spreading of heathland and to a possible decline of anthropogenic activities.

This thesis addresses the nature of play, its relationships with the world, and the relationships between people and objects. The study is exploratory; rather than confining itself too strictly to a particular time or place it has followed the evidence as new areas of interest have unfolded. Throughout all this it has remained grounded in an interest in the archaeology of the Scottish Northern Isles, and in a desire to better understand the archaeological evidence for play from an anthropological viewpoint. It begins with an account of ethnographic fieldwork among chess players (in Edinburgh and Orkney) and players of euchre (a card game played on the Orcadian island of Westray) and moves on to consider the findings in the light of archaeological sources. As the study progresses several key themes emerge. The work carried out amongst chess and card players leads towards a more cognitive appreciation of these activities: how can the relationship between player and pieces be understood? It becomes clear that players use their pieces as proxy forms for their own actions or intentions: can the pieces, then, be said to possess agency, or is some other factor at play? Also, do the movements of chess pieces and cards represent a simple form of notation, or is this a more active engagement, one where person and thing are involved in something more complex? It is suggested here that these relationships can best be understood as an example of 'active externalism', where cognition is not contained but distributed in the immediate environment. Consideration of the role of gaming pieces leads towards an examination of the ways in which the manipulation of objects during play brings new and unexpected discoveries to the participants. The discussion addresses this theme in terms of bricolage and considers the placement of things singly and in sets. Turning then to a review of the archaeology, a major impediment is immediately encountered, which lies in the difficulty Turning then to a review of the archaeology, a major impediment is immediately encountered, which lies in the difficulty of identifying play in the archaeological record prior to a certain point in time. This initially leads to a focus on the archaeology of the first millennium AD before returning to a reconsideration of the nature of the evidence, and of our expectations of where play should be found. A consideration of ritual, for example, brings the role of play into sharp focus and points out how these divisions are not so clear cut. This thesis is a critical appraisal of the archaeological evidence for play and a reappraisal of the relationship between play — an activity which is most often understood as 'set apart' — and everyday life; leading to the conclusion that play is not in fact so separate. The focus on archaeology and game playing gives this thesis an object-centred orientation, together with a certain time-depth, however the discussion demonstrates how the findings are also reflexive: whether in the chess club or on the archaeological site, it also finds play-like or ludic ways of dealing with the world in everyday life.

This thesis presents a contextual analysis of Neolithic art and architecture in Orkney. Focussing upon the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, it details the results of original fieldwork at three sites with in situ dressed and decorated stonework: Maeshowe, Skara Brae and the Ness of Brodgar. It combines the re-interpretation of known architecturally-situated carvings with primary data from new survey and excavation work, and reports the discovery of many previously unrecorded examples. This study reveals a diversity of stoneworking practices at these three sites which contradicts a broad catch-all term of 'art', demanding a more nuanced investigation. Previous studies have discussed the in situ decoration at Maeshowe and Skara Brae, but these have never been compared in detail, and the long histories of attention at these sites have led to questions over the authenticity of their carvings. The discovery of hundreds of comparable, in situ decorated stones from sealed Neolithic deposits during excavations at the Ness of Brodgar demolishes these doubts. The insight that this fieldwork has allowed is crucial. Excavation exposes aspects of the architecture which normally remain hidden, and allows the recording of decoration and stoneworking in situ, and as it is first revealed. This takes the discussion beyond the surface to allow an understanding of how stones were worked and decorated as part of the processes of construction and occupation. This challenges many narratives of Neolithic art and architecture, which have tended to focus upon superficial aspects of visual form, overlooking the ways in which buildings and stones came to be worked, carved, built and appreciated. It allows an exploration of how buildings and carvings emerge though process, and how the temporality of the working, decoration and appreciation of particular stones relates to the wider context of art and architecture in Neolithic Orkney.

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