It's personal - Ellen's links with Scapa Flow Museum

Ellen Pesci is Curator of social history with the Council's Museums team. Here she talks about her special links with Scapa Flow Museum, both with the historic Pumphouse where her grandfather worked and with 'The Dome' - a painting by her father, renowned illustrator and artist Jim Baikie, which will be installed in the redeveloped Museum's education space.

The painting depicts life in post-war Hoy through the eyes of a young Jim - a perfect fit for the Scapa Flow Musuem's education space which will also be named “The Dome” after the title of the painting.

"My connection to Lyness is that firstly, my paternal family is Baikie.

"The first of our direct line moved there from mainland Orkney in the early 1700s. They lived in the Crockness area, farming a croft built by my so many times great grandfather and renting the land from the lairds of Melsetter estate.

"By the late 1800s, my great grandfather, who was a master carpenter, became the go-to man for works on the Martello Towers, the Hackness battery, schools, churches etc - as well as being a member of the Voluntary artillery corps. (I still have his competence certificates).

"His son, my grandfather Vic Baikie was born Albert William Hugh Baikie in 1917, but as my great grandfather was also involved in salvage works in the ‘Flow, the crew of HMS Victorious invited the family to christen my grandad on board the ship (I have a photo). Therefore, of his three given names, none of them were used with the family and islanders preferring his nickname of “Victor” or “Vic” after the ship.

"When Sir William Arrol’s company came to Orkney to install the underground tanks in 1937, my then 20 year old grandfather was often called up to help with machinery problems as the Arrol company didn’t have an onsite engineer. As he had an extremely technical brain, he could fix almost anything.

"After the war, my grandfather was works foreman at Lyness, again doing everything but with a specialist ability in delicate welding. Islanders said that the equipment would have broken down a lot more often if it hadn’t been for his work.

"Sadly, he died in 1969 so I never met him – but by all accounts he was a lovely man. It’s gratifying to be working to help protect the pumphouse machinery he once took so such good care of – I like to think that it might not be standing here today in a museum were it not for his handiwork back then.

"He married my granny, Nettie Hamilton in 1939, and my father Jim Baikie and aunt Janice were born in 1940 and 1941.

"My dad, Jim Baikie was a successful comic artist, working for 2000AD and DC Comics amongst others.

“'The Dome' is an artwork by my dad depicting island life in the post-war years from a childhood perspective. The Rinnigill gas plant and gunnery training room were right on my father’s doorstep as a child, and provided an amazing (and dangerous) playground for children growing up in Hoy – and we hope the painting brings a little bit of that magic and excitement to the Scapa Flow Museum’s education space."

Ellen gives more background on how the Dome has become a focal point for a designated education space in the new Scapa Flow Museum:

“The Dome itself was a gunnery training room in Rinnigall, near where dad lived during the late forties/early fifties.

“As the name suggest, it was a dome shaped building, constructed and hidden inside a large military building. This building still stands, but as the roof has now fallen in, any evidence of the internal Dome structure has practically vanished after years of exposure.

“If you look closely, there are other wartime themes in the painting - the warships in the ‘Flow, and the rotating radar cups on the roof of the Crockness Martello tower for example.

“‘The Dome’ was originally created for the Pier, but it was decided that in the longer term ownership would transfer to the Orkney Museum, so that it could be hung in Scapa Flow Museum.

"Then, with Dad originally being from Hoy, and it also being the only artefact which looks at the military landscape from a childhood perspective, the team working on the new Scapa Flow Museum felt it was a good fit for the Museum’s new education space.

You can find out more about how the Dome has been inspiring the Museum's Junior Curators, here.

(Incidentally, Ellen’s paternal surname also has another connection with the county’s museums through the Baikies of Tankerness House, where the Orkney Museum is located).

Here is ‘The Dome’ as described by Jim Baikie himself:

“The ‘Dome’ is a black, windowless building. It was used in WWII as some kind of navigational simulator. It was almost certainly top secret, which probably explains its invisibility to all but those who lived near it. Most of the interior is occupied by an enormous hollow ball. Painted blue sea extends half way up inside of the ball, to a line representing the horizon. The upper half of the ball, representing sky, is white. I didn’t see inside it until after the mechanised elements were removed. A pit remains in the floor, where I assume a mock up of a ship’s bridge was installed. A hole at the top of the ball presumably housed some kind of projection equipment. High up on the ‘sky’ part of the ball are several observation slots. Local children inevitably got inside during the fifties, and my painting deals with this.”

More about the Scapa Flow Museum:

The Scapa Flow Museum charts Orkney’s military involvement in the First and Second World Wars and provides a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance.

It is currently undergoing a refurbishment project valued at of £4.3 million, comprising an extension to the Museum and refurbishment of the historicpumphouse, supported by Orkney Islands Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, the Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 programme, Highlands and Islands Enterprise,  Museums Galleries Scotland and the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, managed by NatureScot through the Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund. (The Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund is part of the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, which finishes in 2023. NatureScot is also managing another element of the programme – the Green Infrastructure Fund. The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit the Scottish Government website or follow @scotgovESIF.)

Before it’s closure for refurbishment, the Museum attracted 14,000 visitors each year. It’s anticipated visitor numbers will significantly increase as a result of the ambitious and extensive changes and upgrades.

When complete, the Museum will open all-year-round for the first time in many years, encouraging more people to visit Hoy and boosting tourism throughout the island.