550 years ago, Norway gave Scotland the Orkney Islands. Now some islanders want to rejoin the Nordic world
- The UK government has rejected talk in the Orkney Islands of it breaking away and rejoining Norway
- The leader of the remote islands off Scotland has complained of neglect by both London and Edinburgh
Sick of being ignored by faraway politicians, officials on Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands are mulling a drastic solution: rejoining Norway, the Scandinavian country that gave them away as a royal wedding dowry more than 550 years ago.
Orkney Islands Council is due to debate options for “alternative models of governance” on Tuesday, including exploring the “Nordic connections” of the archipelago, which lies about 16km (10 miles) north of the Scottish mainland.
Council leader James Stockan said the islands had been failed by both the Scottish government, 480km to the south in Edinburgh, and the UK government in even more distant London.
“On the street in Orkney, people come up and say to me: ‘When are we going to pay back the dowry? When are we going back to Norway?’ There is a huge affinity and a huge deep cultural relationship there,” Stockan told the BBC. “This is exactly the moment to explore what is possible.”
Norway kept a diplomatic distance from the debate.