Two flights take me there: Manchester to Aberdeen and then Aberdeen to Kirkwall. From the Rainy City, to the Granite City, to Kirkjugavr (Norse meaning Church Bay).

This takes me back to the school bus, once more the backseat boy.

A sudden flash of the sun catches me unawares.

Didn’t last long, back to surfing the shadows of the north.

Somewhere below lies the Orkney archipelago, a scattering of around seventy islands.

“Beyond Britannia, where the endless ocean opens, lies Orkney.” Orosius,  5th Century.

I have just started reading a book by Adam Nicholson called Sea Room. Aged just 21, Nicholson inherited three islands, the Shiants, five miles off Harris. He describes his book as a love letter to them. On the front cover it says ‘the story of one man, three islands and half a million puffins.’

I showed it to my wife. I cannot begin to tell…