Shapinsay Speaks is a community led project by local volunteers who have been collecting memories from the past 80 years of the history of the small Orkney island of Shapinsay. Material from the project is being shared on this website thanks to a ‘Stories, Stones and Bones’ grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded in 2017 to Shapinsay Development Trust. We hope you enjoy digging into Shapinsay’s past with the help not only of long term residents but also from some of the newer people who’ve chosen to make their homes here and who are becoming a part of the history that’s being made today.
We would like to say a big thank you to all those who have contributed to this website by sharing or gathering stories for everyone to enjoy and also to Shapinsay Heritage Arts and Crafts for allowing us to use some of their wonderful collection of vintage photos of the island to help illustrate the topics covered. Thanks also to the Science Ceilidh Band with Lewis Hou and Helen Le Mar for holding events on memory which helped stimulate interest in collecting some of our island’s stories as in the event below ……