Toby Ferris

Stone
3 min read

Stone

In the MIT museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, there is (or used to be) a little whirring sculpture comprising an electric motor, a gear train, and a cube of concrete. The motor spins at
Italian Chapel
4 min read

Italian Chapel

On my last morning in Orkney I found a scrap of time to visit the little chapel on Lamb Holm, built by Italian prisoners of war during World War Two. Before the war,
Ghost Curlew
7 min read

Ghost Curlew

On my last visit to Orkney—my third—driving between Orphir (birthplace of John Rae) and Stromness (birthplace, and also death place, of George Mackay Brown) I hit and killed a curlew. It
Salvage
6 min read

Salvage

The scuttle of the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919 gave rise in the years that followed to a salvage operation which lasted until the outbreak of the next war.