BBC Travel has joined the campaign to suggest the Orkneys have no strong ties with Scotland and claim:
The Viking spirit of a remote Scottish archipelago – Orkney made headlines worldwide this week with news that the archipelago wants to leave both Scotland and the UK in order to join, or rather rejoin, Norway…..Vikings started arriving in Orkney from Norway in the late 8th Century and found the fertile islands so much to their liking that they stayed for 500 years, settling as farmers and using the islands as a base to launch further voyages.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230706-the-viking-spirit-of-a-remote-scottish-archipelago
Leaving aside the language used to conceal the brutal truth of mass murder of men and boys, and rape of women and girls, in this population movement into a place already populated, as in all others in history, the ‘Viking spirit’ is little more than that, a feeling.
The evidence?
British and Australian researchers have mapped the genetic structure of today’s Brits. They found that the only place where the Viking inheritance is genetically strong is the Orkney Islands. Orkney were under Norwegian rule for centuries and as a result, 25 percent of Orkney Islanders’ genes can be traced to Norway…..The same goes for the genetic make-up of today’s Orkney Islanders. It traces back much further than many have believed. A surprisingly large amount of their genes stems from the Picts and other peoples who lived on the islands long before Harald Fairhair took control of them in 875.
https://sciencenorway.no/dna-forskningno-history/orkney-islanders-are-25-percent-norwegian/1418228
So, the Norwegian government has refused the offer. The UK Government has decided to keep the oil so they’ll have to stay and they’re 75% Pictish or even pre-Pictish.
Another non-story.
Footnote: 500 years of Viking-rule and still only 25% Viking genes. Are Pictish genes dominant in some way?
Talking-up Scotland 
I am a pict my relatives from Shetland
What happened to the everyone who lives in Scotland is a Scot , that’s what the BBC say isn’t it , it’s nonsense , people living on Orkney know what nationality they are and perhaps some are Norwegian maybe some want to be Norwegian , i suspect this all comes from the English living on Orkney who pretend to be Scottish when they plaster our flag on their cheese or other products but underneath the washy veneer it’s English , they will pretend to be Norwegian too if it means more money but they are still English .
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If we use the same logic- then it’s not looking good for Falkland Islands. I wonder if Argentina would decline the offer. Don’t get me started on Gibraltar.
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I remember having a conversation with a Shetlander about Brian Sykes and his DNA survey which showed much the same results as in Orkney.
Sykes collected much of the DNA from children at school to which the response from this particular Shetlander was that the Norse kids must have been at home that day.
I think that many islanders just like to think of themselves as being separate from the mainland and will grasp any idea which supports that.
Having said that,they deserve to have local accountability based on democracy and the purpose of their state government should be to support that and not try to undermine it for ulterior motives.
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the Norse kids must have been at home that day?
practising ra…………No stop!
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This linking of genetics to local governance is a non-sequitur.
Genetics is a scientific study of human molecules which determine a wide range of human features (not just physiognomy). Each one of us has a unique genetic make-up.
Local governance is about the people living in an area deciding on the laws by which they agree to abide in order to cohabit safely.
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Correct. I’m not serious.
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The Viking and Norway slant is a political media construct, it’s about Orkney desiring greater autonomy – Forget the nonsense about ceding from SG, it’s about Orcadians being sick of the entire shebang imposed by HMG over many many decades.
eg The energy connector from the mainland they’ve been crying out for long before SG even existed, now only appears of late to be happening because Orkney is now an alt energy powerhouse, and Tories see profits to be made…
The SNP are a convenient squirrel for mainly an English audience to hide the UK’s fragmentation…
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I wonder if the media have worked out if the inhabitants of treeless Orkney share less DNA in common with squirrels than do the inhabitants of forested Scotland?
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I live quite near Ayr Racecourse, and all three of my sons eat like horses!
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Plates were expensive ?
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Iceland also has genetic and linguistic connection to Scots Gaelic, by the way Scots and Picts were raiding Norway, Sweden and Denmark as early as the 6th centuary, we were the first vikings. I’m sure if longhand hadn’t burnt most of our ancient manuscripts we might have been teaching this in School.
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Longand?
Eric Longhand?
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Longshanks, it’s tough writing a comment with a dug on your lap trying to steal your biscuit.
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Sorry should have added Shet/ Het is simply the the Scandinavian form of cat. The Irish referee to Shetland as the Isle of the cats which links it strongly to Caithness and the very tribal people of the cat.
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Connected with the folk of Ardchattan?
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Geographically no but who knows.
early Irish literature, Shetland is referred to as Insi Catt — “the Isles of Cats” (meaning the island inhabited by the tribe called Cat). This may have been the pre-Norse inhabitants’ name for the islands. Cat was the name of a Pictish people who occupied parts of the northern Scottish mainland (see Kingdom of Cat); and their name survives in the names of the county of Caithness and in the Scottish Gaelic name for Sutherland, Cataibh, which means “among the Cats”.[13]
The oldest known version of the modern name Shetland is Hetland; this may represent “Catland”, the Germanic language softening the C- to H- according to Grimm’s law. It occurs in a letter written by Harald, earl of Orkney, Shetland and Caithness, in c.1190.[14] By 1431, the islands were being referred to as Hetland, after various intermediate transformations. It is possible that the Pictish “cat” sound contributed to this Norse name. In the 16th century, Shetland was referred to as Hjaltland.[15][16] [Note 3]
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Circinn ya bass!
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