h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We’re in the process of putting together an h2g2 Edited Guide entry for each and every one of the UK’s Counties and Regions – and we’d like you to help us write them!

Ideally we’re looking for a volunteer to take on the job of putting together an entry on the Orkney Islands, covering the following kind of basic information:

- General location in the UK, including all of the bordering regions.

- The main towns and cities there

- A very basic history of the region (which, for those created in more recent times might include a little background about the region before the county was formed). Some counties/regions will be famous for specific key events in history, which we'd also like to know about.

- Any geographical features (lakes in Cumbria, Peak District in Derbyshire, Pennines in Yorkshire/Greater Manchester)

- Links to other related entries for the region.

If you’ve also got the time, we’d love to see the following kind of thing in the entry too:

basic statistical data (population, size, house prices, etc); famous sons and daughters from that region (actors, sports stars, musicians?); any notable places to visit and things to do (castles, theme parks, shopping centres); TV/film appearances that might give people an idea of what the county is like, etc, etc.

If you feel that you haven’t got the time to devote to writing a whole County/Region by yourself, then please help us get the work up and going by posting any relevant facts, figures, bits of trivia or the like to this conversation thread – which will GREATLY help the person who eventually writes up the whole article. Thanks in advance for your contributions to this massive h2g2 project!

Cheers!

Paully

Yup: I'll do an intro Paully. And I'll add one or four more about stuff I told you about on another thread

Lochs and fishing
Oil/oil handling terminal
Vikings in Orkney
George Mackay Brown (possibly)
Stromness - history and stuff
The Rousay Clearances
Religion (possibly)

Okay?

Oh, and I shan't refer to it as the Orkney Islands. To all the islanders, it's plain Orkney

Fb

'Orkney' is fine by me!

P

I'm delighted to announce that we already have two County entries in Peer Review, waiting to receive any bouquets or brickbats that people might lob in their general direction! If you're currently either working on or contributing to a County entry of your own right now, you might like to have a quick look to see how some other researchers have tackled this challenge. They are: County Fermanagh (A6092606) and Norfolk (A6108473).

Hope you enjoy reading them!

Paully

Paully I haven't forgotten about this entry.

In fact I penned the first couple of pages this evening, so it's in the making at last. Give me a few more days.


Five Fb

Excellent news!

Paully

Hey Paully

It's in PR

A7122331


Five Fb

Wa-hey! Well done!

Are you reading all these County/Region entries going through PR? You'll do nothing else for weeks

Well, yeah, mostly - the Counties project was my baby really, so I'm keeping a bit of a paternal eye on things whenever possible!

P

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Challenge h2g2' to 'Orkney'.