Margaret Carr

After unsuccessfully trying to continue her journalistic career in London, New Zealander Margaret Carr was so dedicated to the idea of taking up a post on The Orcadian she applied for the job twice…

"I come from a place called New Plymouth in New Zealand and been a journalist all my working life," she said.

"My husband and I were living in London and I was having trouble finding work. I applied for the job that was advertised in the Press and Journal. The second time I applied I really emphasized that I had done research on Orkney and knew about the place I was coming to. So I got the job!

"I have been here for almost four years, and I feel I've really settled in. I absolutely love it and I have no plans to go anywhere else just yet."

Although Margaret loves living in Orkney, she found the local language difficult to understand at first.

She says, "It was a really steep learning curve when I got here. Orcadians have their own words for things. For example, 'peedie,' means 'little' and 'what like the day' means 'how are you today'. It can be very confusing for newcomers to Scotland. I don’t use them much because I think they sound funny in a New Zealand accent."

To Margaret, the best thing about Orkney is the local people.

"There is an intelligence here that really attracts me; Orcadians know about the rest of the world. I’ve been to other island groups where they were a bit inward looking and fearful of outsiders. But because Orkney has a history of sea faring and immigration, every time I meet someone they tell me they’ve got a cousin who lives in New Zealand. They have a cosmopolitan outlook on the world. Orcadians know that Orkney is the best place in the world so they don’t need to feel fearful of things coming from the outside," she says.

A lot of her work involves speaking to farmers. Margaret says, "I have to persuade someone to talk to me for a start. I talk to them about what they have been doing in their farm work and put them at ease so that they open up. They have to trust you; if they tell you things are off the record, you won’t put it on the front page. I also sort out what will be a nice picture that relates to the feature. Sometimes I speak to farmers because they are in the news and I do news reporting for farming as well."

As the Farming Reporter with the Orcadian newspaper has learnt quite a bit about farming on the island and thinks that local farming is so good that Orkney beef is the best in the world.

"A reasonable number are getting into organic farming, although Orkney farming is quite organic anyway," she says. "For example, farmers grow their own barley and make silage. I tell people that Orkney beef is the best in the world. As a New Zealander I never thought I would say an agricultural product here is the best in the world. Cattle are probably the most important part of agriculture here. Things are looking good here and prices are holding up."

Things are so good in Orkney that Margaret doesn’t miss London.

"The yearly St Magnus Festival is very well known. In the summer the sun doesn’t set properly so you can go out, see the Scottish National orchestra and walk home in the twilight," she says.

"I've never ever felt that this is an isolated place. The crime rate is incredibly low and people still don't lock there car doors and homes," she says.

Margaret feels that there is a strong sense of community too.

"People think 'it used to be better in the old days.' Well, in Orkney it still is!"

Related Links

• The Orcadian