Environmental comms & freelance journalism. Previous writing @Independent, @CentralBylines, @PA, and elsewhere. Views my own.
Kirkwall, Orkney
Joined December 2023
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Very happy to announce that I'll be starting a new role as Comms Officer for the Orkney Native Wildlife Project in January!
I first saw Atlantic puffins in the wild some sixteen years ago - it'll be fantastic to work with them once again :)
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
Today, the most northerly town in the entire UK, Lerwick is celebrating the long-held tradition of Up Helly Aa which celebrates the end of the “enforced idleness” brought about by the Yule season. This clip shows what the festival looked like 56 years ago in 1970.
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
From January to March each year, the communities in Shetland unite for a series of remarkable and distinct fiery festivities!🔥
The Up Helly Aa fire festivals are among the most significant annual events in Shetland. Drawing inspiration from the islands' Viking heritage, locals
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
“Of death, time and destiny
I have known it long, and I know too well
What it all means to me.”
Thomas Hardy died this day 1928, in his home Max Gate, his heart buried in Stinsford church in Dorset
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
The Skulls in the Turret
In 1877, restoration workers at Elsdon (Northumberland) broke into the bell turret's spire. They found three horse skulls arranged in a triangle, carefully built into the stonework centuries before.
Why? Nobody knows.
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
Huge news!!!
Our good friend Joe, a frequent guest on the Weird Medieval Guys podcast, was one of a team of archaeologists who discovered a CARNYX last year—one of the first ever found in England!!
theguardian.com/science/2026…
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
Came face to face with the reindeer antlers from the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance whilst on a building survey today. One of these has been carbon dated to 1065 +/- 80 years. First record of a hobby horse tradition here in 1532, earliest reference to the use of horns in 1686.
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
👻 The brockenspectre of the broch inspector! 👻
Great photo from Tom Davis and Oliver Lewis of @welovehistory who were checking up on Ousdale Broch recently.
📸 Aerial photos of the Broch by @livebreathescotland
#Brochs
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
learning to cook is one of the most fundamental ways to change your life
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
Last year there was a net emigration of over 110,000 by 16-34 year old British nationals. That’s a big exodus in an aging society.
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
TIL an older version of ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ had the line ‘The wood-pigeon lifts up her tail / And shits before she goes’, why have we sanitised all our carols
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
Americans don’t understand this but British Asian/British Indian stuff is its own thing. Curry houses are a very British thing.
It would be like going off about how Hamburgers are associated with the US at this point and not Northern Germany.
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
Big city news:
BREAKING: Six former Nottingham Labour councillors have quit the group to form a new party.
The defectors say Labour has been complicit in a genocide in Gaza and that the city council's leadership has become a "small clique".
More on @nottslive.
nottinghampost.com/news/nott…
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
The Hamble Valley Reform UK Branch uses an AI generated image of people captioned “Real People” on its website (2025)
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
We have fat balls how's your Monday morning going?
Many thanks to the brilliant team from RSPB Orkney who have been here the last two weekends running Nature craft sessions for children. ❤️👏🐦⬛🪲
@SLIC1991 @RSPBScotland
ALT A fat ball made of seeds and lard hanging from a tree outside Orkney Library and Archive
Very happy to see this piece go live, for Central Bylines - an interview with @Taj_Ali1, on his new independent anti-racist monitoring project:
centralbylines.co.uk/society…
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
"The hair of the dog" is one of the best idioms in English. More of the language should be filled with bizarre, obscure references to British sympathetic magic beliefs.
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
I don’t like the appropriation of the word ‘goon’. A ‘goon’ is a big dumb guy who gets beaten up by, for instance, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. It’s not this quite sordid business that you’re all on about nowadays
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
Recently published book giving a concise history of coalmining in the North Derbyshire coalfield. Written by coal mining historian and former miner, Kevin Kew, the book is one of the outputs from the HLF 'Mining Memories of Clay Cross' heritage project. thehubs45.co.uk/mining-memor…
Daniel J. Thomas retweeted
Loyalist paramilitaries are threatening to burn any council vans or centres displaying Irish signs in order to make Belfast City Council's new language policy unworkable.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunda…
