A series of traditional building workshops have been held with school pupils in Kirkwall.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and the Kirkwall Townscape Heritage Initiative (KTHI) staged a number of special workshops with S3 pupils from Kirkwall Grammar School during their Practical Craft lessons.

The sessions, which looked at building with traditional stone materials, demonstrated a number of skills including carving onto limestone, building dry stone dykes with rubble and Orkney stone, as well as using brick and mortar building to demonstrate the comparison in building methods.

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Stuart Woodrow, Principal teacher in Design and Technology at KGS, explained: "We approached the Kirkwall THI to see if we could tap into the project and get some help covering traditional building skills as part of Practical Craft.

"The THI team put us in touch with HES, who have pitched in to help with the cost of materials for these workshops, as well as giving specialist technical advice.

"It means pupils have the chance to explore this area of practical crafts, and sample the skills and knowledge that are still very much part of the Orkney economy.

"We're also in the process of getting advice from HES about the types of tools we could introduce into our workshop here at KGS, so that hopefully future students will be able to try their hand too."

Gavin Douglas from HES added: "Giving young people a real flavour of what it is like to work with stone, including natural local materials, is a vital part of ensuring traditional skills remain an active part of the building industry."

(LM)