The Orkney islands are an archipelago lying to the north of Scotland. They, along with the Shetland islands, further north still, are part of Britain but centuries ago actually belonged to Norway (which is much closer than London is).

Both sets of islands are unprotected from the North Atlantic weather, which can at times be severe. Both lie at a similar latitude to part of Alaska and Siberia but (fortunately) are not as cold due to the Gulf Stream.

As a consequence of the occasional bad weather Orkney has only a few trees and Shetland none. Seen here high above the cliff face we can just see an old coastguard lookout station.