The master and crew of the Earl Sigurd ferry have been praised for their quick thinking in attending to a poorly passenger on board.

Jane Rendall, a school cook, was travelling from Papay to Kirkwall on Tuesday tea-time when she began feeling very unwell.

An Orkney Head Teacher, who gave herself a mountain to climb to raise cash for a cancer charity close to her heart, has successfully completed the challenge.

Papdale Primary School’s Wendy Bowen decided to aim high taking on the UK’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, in memory of a dear friend she lost to pancreatic cancer.

This year the Orkney College UHI annual special award presentations were a little different although no less special for those involved.

While these special awards are normally presented as part of the annual Graduation Ceremony, this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the university partnership made the very difficult decision to cancel face-to-face graduation ceremonies in 2021. 

Eco-travel, sustainable tourism, and cruise liner strategy are just some of the topics up for discussion at this year’s Orkney Tourism Summit, which gets underway next month.

Open to all Destination Orkney members, the free online summit will run for six evenings across a two-week period from 9 November, with a line-up of key industry speakers and a range of special training sessions on offer.

Vital connectivity services for Orkney, has been completed by Exchange Communications, one of the UK’s leading telephony and digital transformation specialists, streamlining council services and providing enhanced services for more than 22,000 residents.

Exchange Communications won the contract with Orkney Islands Council to install a future-proof new communication infrastructure for its 750 office based employees, which will help them deliver council services more effectively across the islands as services and amenities continue to increase. 

Plans to get the Nordic Sea into service on the Papay to Westray route are moving closer.

Staff recruitment has concluded, training is now underway, and this will be followed by a familiarization period on board the vessel ahead of a start date North o’ the Galt.

The first four brand new buses arrived in Orkney on Friday 15 October 2021.

The investment of £5.4 million in 34 brand new buses is a result of a contract between Orkney Islands Council and Stagecoach covering an 8-year period, from 2021 through to 2029.

The Council’s ICT team require to carry out some essential maintenance work to the network security systems on Tuesday evening (19 October).

Unfortunately, this will mean some brief outages to a number of our public websites – such as Marine Services, planning and warrant, sport and leisure, benefit applications. These brief outages will occur between 5.30pm til 8pm. We will update as soon as the works are complete and the complete system is up and running again.

Seven organisations in Orkney are to benefit from funding totalling almost £450,000 to support employment, community resilience, health and wellbeing.

Enterprises in Hoy, Eday, North Ronaldsay, Sanday and the Mainland are set to receive a collective total of £445,224.05 from the Scottish Government’s £2 million Island Communities Fund.

Age Scotland Orkney (ASO) have secured a long-term future premises within the town centre thanks to support from the Council.

ASO were able to purchase their existing office base at 46 Victoria Street in Kirkwall after receiving a loan from the OIC.