Springtime in Orkney is a moveable feast. April can be amazing, Nature in full flood, buds bursting forth, sap rising and the island bejeweled with golden daffodils and drumstick primulas everywhere you look. It is also quiet, and with most visitor attractions moving to summer timetables from the 1st April though the season does not start fully until the 1st of May, it can be a wonderful time to visit.
Or April can be dire, as Winter extends its grip further and deeper into the year. Buds shriveling under an onslaught of severe salt laden gales, daffodil heads exploded across the land and day after day of freezing temperatures. Even the most resiliant may suffer the depression of a seventh month of gloom.
The annual tourist season starts to build from the Easter break, and with Easter falling pretty early April 2nd - 5th (2010) this year it will hopefully herald a good season.
Perhaps a better event to look at is the slightly more local Orkney Jazz Festival 23rd-25th April 2010. The Jazz Festival is based primarily at the Stromness Hotel, and showcases local jazz musicians as well as well known musicians from the jazz scene within the UK. It is probably the smallest of the music festivals but remains perfectly formed. If good music and conviviality is for you then this is a very good weekend to arrive.
May signifies the start of the full blown summer season. Curiously although the population more than doubles in the summer months it has little obvious effect on the general tranquility of the Islands. The sensible tourist should perhaps time visits to the more obvious attractions for early morning or evenings to avoid possible coach loads of liner fodder on their its tuesday so it must be Orkney,
whirlwinds but in general a combination of so much to see allied with increasingly long daylight hours avoids any problems.
According to the Weather stats May is the sunniest month and the driest, but still cool. Certain things do happen in May if the weather is good which should not be missed; the return of the Puffins, the bluebell Woods of Balfour Castle and the wonderful golden adornment of Egilsay.
Bluebell woods may seem an odd thing to come to see here and I suppose that throughout the UK such sights are commonplace, but on an exquisite late May day with glistening Sun illuminating the small, pretty but unimportant 30 acre woodland of Balfour it can be a sight that slips into magical.
The end of May sees the second music festival of the year. The 28th Orkney Folk Festival 27th- 30th May 2010 will erupt with joyously blazing fiddles resounding throughout the land. We will update with more performance information as it is released.
