January 2026

2nd January – Happy New Year everybody.

We had a quiet Hogmanay in Stromness. New Year’s Eve was blessed with gales and heavy rain. Few revellers ventured out and the midnight fireworks didn’t happen. Instead there was a midnight chorus of ship’s horns in the harbour.

We woke, this morning, to our first proper snowfall. The roads are quite tricky, so we probably won’t venture too far today. Graham Place was looking very festive, with few people about the snow is still fairly untouched.

When it snows what else can you do but go sledging. Apparently Stromness Golf Course does have a use after all!

3rd January – The cold spell seems to be with us for another few days now, roads are closed, buses and ferries cancelled. We’ll just have to wrap up and turn the heating on.

Let’s hope that the Tesco delivery drivers are made of stronger stuff than the bus drivers!

5th January – More snow! Looks pretty but it keeps us restricted to home. Shops are empty and deliveries are struggling to get here.

The solar panels are struggling to produce with a blanket of snow, which is a shame as it’s a bright sunny day. Hopefully the sun will warm them enough to let the snow slide off.

5th January – The cold weather has produced some interesting phenomena. The Orcadian posted this item on “snow rollers” on the farms in Sandwick.

Something strange has been going on in Sandwick… We’ve been inundated with photos of these “snow bales” which have appeared on the hills there this afternoon.

Also known as “snow rollers” or “snow doughnuts” these unusual swirls are a fairly rare phenomenon.

According to the Royal Meteorological Society, snow rollers are snow balls formed naturally by strong winds blowing across a flat, snow-covered field or hillside.

Three conditions need to occur for snow rollers to form:

The ground must be icy or covered with a snow crust.

Winds must be strong and gusty.

Snowfall must be wet and at least a couple of inches deep.

Once a snow roller is formed the wind gets it to roll, collecting snow as it moves, in some cases even creating tracks of bare ground. They can vary in size and can get as large as 1.5m in length.

10th January – Stromness is now, thankfully, free of snow, heavy rain mid-week has cleared most of the town, the hills on Hoy clinging on to the last of it.

This photo is Saturday, 2:30pm. if Stromnessians are mobbing the January sales, they must be in Inverness, the town is deserted.

20th January – With yet more gales forecast for the next three days, we have made sure that the larder is fully stocked and dusted off some boardgames to stop us getting bored. (geddit?)

30th January – Kirkwall is abuzz just now with the arrival of driverless vehicles for a trial period. The immediate plan is to use them to run between the airport, Kirkwall and the cruise ship terminal. The automonous vehicles arrive next month for testing over short distances at Hatston.

Of course, it’s been done before in the 19th century, and they were easier to fix then, if it broke down, they simply changed the horse.