Orkney, also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles off the north coast of Scotland. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited. The largest island, the Mainland, has an area of 523 square kilometres (202 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest Scottish island and the tenth-largest island in the British Isles. Orkney's largest settlement, and also its administrative centre, is Kirkwall.
Kirkwall is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. First mentioned in the Orkneyinga saga, it is today the location of the headquarters of the Orkney Islands Council and a transport hub with ferries to many locations. It at the centre of the St Magnus International Festival and is also popular stopping off point for cruise ships. St Magnus Cathedral stands at the heart of the town.
The Mainland, also known as Hrossey and Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections.
South Ronaldsay is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland. It is linked to the Orkney Mainland by the Churchill Barriers, running via Burray, Glimps Holm and Lamb Holm.
Orkney is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering the council area of Orkney. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the eight constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The Bishop of Orkney was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Orkney, one of thirteen medieval bishoprics of Scotland. It included both Orkney and Shetland. It was based for almost all of its history at St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall.
The Churchill Barriers are four causeways in the Orkney islands with a total length of 2.3 kilometres (1.4 mi). They link the Orkney Mainland in the north to the island of South Ronaldsay via Burray and the two smaller islands of Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm.
Orkney Ferries is a Scottish company operating inter-island ferry services in the Orkney Islands. The company operates ferry services across 15 islands.
The A961 is a single-carriageway road on the eastern side of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, connecting the town of Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland to Burwick at the southern end of South Ronaldsay.
The Orkney Islands Council, is the local authority for Orkney, Scotland. It was established in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and was largely unaffected by the Scottish local government changes of the mid-1990s.
Stagecoach Highlands is a division of the Stagecoach Group operating within the Scottish Highlands as well as on the Orkney Islands and Isle of Skye. The company is based in Inverness and covers most of the former Rapson Group bus and coach operations, which were taken over by Stagecoach in May 2008.
The 2017 Orkney Islands Council election took place on 4 May 2017 to elect members of Orkney Islands Council. The election used the six wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with each ward electing three or four Councillors using the single transferable vote system a form of proportional representation, with 21 Councillors being elected.
The Orkney Manifesto Group (OMG) was a minor political party in Orkney, Scotland. The group advocated for politicisation of Orkney Islands Council, believing that party-based representation would offer more robust democratic governance than the current council of elected independents. The OMG started as an alliance of three Independents who campaigned on a joint manifesto for the 2012 election, before finally registering as a party in 2013.
East Mainland, South Ronaldsay and Burray is one of the six wards used to elect members of the Orkney Islands Council. It elects three Councillors.
Mary Anne Baikie a Scottish suffragist who established the Orcadian Women's Suffrage Society (OWSS) and grew the membership and public interest in the debate, in the Orkney Isles, during the campaigns for Votes for Women.
The 2022 Scottish local elections were held on 5 May 2022, as part of the 2022 United Kingdom local elections. All 1,226 seats across all 32 Scottish local authorities were up for election and voter turnout was 44.8%.
Elections to the Shetland Islands Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. Seven wards will be contested, each ward electing two to four Councillors using the single transferable vote system form of proportional representation, with 23 Councillors elected.
Elections to Argyll and Bute Council took place on 5 May 2022, the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV)—a form of proportional representation—in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference. New ward boundaries were proposed by Boundaries Scotland in 2021, which would have reduced the total number of councillors to 34. However, these were rejected by the Scottish Parliament and the boundaries used at the previous election remained in place.
