Fending off the northern invaders

Orkney is being overrun by geese to the ire of its farmers, but a longer season means more Guns can do their bit

- MATT CROSS

One of the curious things about Scotland is the way that the Highlands seem to give up. For a long time as you head north the land grows higher and rockier, the soil gets thinner and fat cattle and cropland gives way to lean sheep and rangy deer. Then quite suddenly, when you hit the Islands, the land grows fat again. The grass is rich. The soil is fertile and the beasts are big.

Orkney is the epitome of this. Despite being on the same latitude as St Petersburg and 100 miles north of Inverness, it is good farming country with thick grass and abundant barley. It was this bounty that brought the Viking earls. They held the islands until they were given to Scotland in lieu of a dowry in 1472.

The islands’ richness has recently attracted a whole new tribe of northern invaders. Ten years ago there were a few hundred resident geese on Orkney, their ranks briefly swelled every winter as migratory pink feet and greylags passed through. But in recent years something has dramatically changed. For reasons no one quite understands, geese have decided to settle in the islands and the population has exploded.

Orkney is a wonderful place to be a goose; it has no foxes nor badgers to take eggs or goslings and on the offshore rocks, called skerries, there is no disturbance by people or dogs. There is abundant feeding on the grassland and the barley stubbles. The result is that goose numbers have swelled to an estimated 30,000.