Walking the cliffs with Morag

Morag MacInnes invited us to visit her in Quoyloo, north-west of Stromness, to follow up on a conversation we had last year, when she talked of the disconnection between developers, policy-makers and local people around the industrialization of new renewables – wind and tidal energy – on Orkney. ‘I want to say to everyone who makes decisions that affect our lives, come and walk the cliffs with us.’ Her own experience reflects that of many communities in Scotland’s islands and Highlands, affected or likely to be affected by the growth of new technologies, by the trials of pioneering wave and tidal installations and their onshore infrastructure. ‘This is technology right on the edge – shiny and wonderful. But the development of these projects has been piecemeal and negotiations private. I love renewables’, she says, ‘but I hate the idea of structures not in tune with the landscape. Too often, people are ignored in favour of big ideas. To make structures function in the landscape and be useful, people need to own them and make them together.’

We walk the cliffs with Morag and local farmer John, whose land is of interest to turbine developers, and who has to balance the need for income with the prospect of profound change on his land and to his way of life – and that of his neighbours, including Morag: ‘The history of islands is that people come, take what’s useful and bugger off, leaving their detritus.’ Morag fills us with cullen skink, Orkney cheddar and oatcakes, reads her rich, wry poems in Shetland dialect, and local artists talk about their work. We’re enveloped in Orkney hospitality, in laughter and kindness and in the contradictions and complexities of living on the edge.

Posted: 23 August 2013, 6:19pm

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