Skaill Bay Meetings & Sightings…..The Cairns Dig Diary…...From ‘Wild Justice’……
by Bernie Bell - 09:08 on 30 June 2025
Skaill Bay Meetings & Sightings….
We parked in the car park opposite the toilet block, and saw a magnificent vehicle with pictures of Megaliths on the sides and back….
A man was just about to go through the door into the van so, being a nosey sort, I asked what it was all about. The man is Hendrik who, with wife Elsa has been travelling around Europe since 2015, exploring thousands of megalithic monuments in search of their meaning.
We had much in common and much to talk about, and Hendrik gave us a copy of his book…
Which I very much look forward to delving into.
I sometimes get down about how people can be - meeting people who are thinking, open minded, kindly and wanting to share - cheered me!
If you’d like to check out Hendrik’s book and website…..
https://mythicalstones.eu/nl/megalieten/megaliths-the-origin-of-megalithic-cultures
We than walked along the beach in the direction of Skara Brae, and came across a different kind of stone structure - a little ‘hut’ on the stones, complete with a stoat-trap …
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16248
At the far end of the beach there’s a low cliff and bank with Sand Martin nests, and Sand Martins busily flying back and forth…..
We could see some baby birds peeking out of some of the holes, but couldn’t have got close enough to take a pic. without disturbing them as I only had my happy snaps camera with me, so …we didn’t! Lovely to see them though.
Then, to the Orkney Brewery for lunch – yummy as always…….
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=17304
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The Cairns Dig Diary….
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2025/06/28/cairns-d15-2025/
Would you believe it – half way through this year’s dig already – so – if you want to visit the site this year – don’t delay!
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From ‘Wild Justice’……
“In this newsletter; one last push ahead of Monday’s ban driven shooting debate in Westminster Hall, an important new report from the RSPB about the illegal killing of Hen Harriers on grouse moors, our website’s having a makeover, and a quick update on our recent judicial review against what we think is a flawed planning decision affecting wildlife in Pembrokeshire.
Ban Driven Grouse Shooting petition – the debate.
After our petition reached 100,000 signatures (104,342 to be precise), a Westminster Hall debate on the subject has been scheduled for this Monday – June 30th – at 4:30pm.
We of course will be attending, and will update you with how it goes. You can watch the debate live yourself – follow this link on Monday afternoon at 4:30pm.
Thank you to those of you who’ve contacted your MPS asking them to attend the debate on Monday. Your emails have had an effect; we’ve heard from a good number of MPs with positive responses from across the parties. We also met with and briefed John Lamont MP from the Petitions Committee earlier this week, as he'll be opening the debate by introducing a summary of our petition to the gathered MPs.
It seems - of the myriad issues associated with the intensive management of driven grouse moors – that the illegal persecution of raptors has been top of the list of concerns for these MPs. This is good news; whilst environmental damage through burning, carbon emissions, flooding and erosion are important, as is the widespread (legal) killing of hundreds of thousands of native predators, and the shocking use of medicated grit, it's the sickening and illegal killing of birds of prey that seems to sum up the nature of this ‘sport’ all too well.
Which leads us to…
Hen Harriers in the Firing Line – a new RSPB report:
We’d like to bring this new report, written by the RSPB’s investigations team, to your attention. The report highlights the ongoing criminal persecution of Hen Harriers on UK driven grouse moors – numbers of which have reached a new high.
Newly published figures show 102 Hen Harriers have been confirmed or suspected to have been illegally killed between 2020 - 2024, mostly from areas managed for driven grouse shooting in northern England.
We think this is an important and timely report. You can read it in full, by clicking here.
If you haven’t yet written to your MP ahead of Monday’s debate, there’s still time – and perhaps you could forward them a copy of Hen Harriers in the Firing Line. That would be very helpful, thank you. You can download the report from the above link and email it to your MP.
Click here to find your MPs contact details, and click here for our previous blog with some guidance on writing to them.
Work on our website:
Our website is getting a much-needed makeover! We’ll be refreshing the layout, sprucing it up a bit, and adding some new information and pages. In the meantime, there might be some moments where you can’t access some pages and blogs in the next few days. Please bear with us on this, it’ll be back up and running smoothly soon!
An update on our judicial review of a planning decision on the Pembrokeshire coast:
Last week we, along with our brilliant lawyers and members of the local community from Moylgrove, Pembrokeshire, attended court in Haverfordwest for a two day hearing where we challenged what we consider to be a flawed planning decision (see here).
We hope to have a decision on our case in the coming weeks, and we’ll soon be sharing with you a blog written by members of the Moylgrove community about their experience of attending court – once the aforementioned website work is complete!
That’s it for now – wish us luck for Monday!
Wild Justice (CEO: Bob Elliot. Directors: Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).
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