Celebrating the botanist from the Bu

July 1, 2011 at 2:55 pm

Asplenium_adiantum — One of James Sinclair's botanical specimens, which will be on show in the kirk.

The first exhibition of the Friends of Hoy Kirk’s two-year Creels & Crofts heritage project gets under way today, Friday, and is a celebration of the life of local man James Sinclair — “the botanist from the Bu”.

Born at the Bu of Hoy in 1913, James Sinclair went to Edinburgh University in 1932, graduating with a degree, with honours, in botany. He then studied to become a teacher, teaching in Stronsay and Kirkwall.

After the war, he joined the staff of Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden, then moved to Singapore to take up the post of curator of the herbarium there.

The exhibition launch begins at 7.30pm, in the Hoy Kirk, and promises an evening of plenty of refreshment, music, good company and a series of short, informal talks.

For those travelling from the Mainland, the next ferry for Moaness, a mile from the kirk, leaves Stromness at 5.45pm, with the last boat back returning at 10pm.