Orkney editor: 'We had to be the best we’ve ever been and keep our newspaper going'

Darragh Bermingham talks to the Irish editor who moved to Orkney as a reluctant teen. Today, Leah Seator calls the islands home

The Orcadian was Highlands and Islands Newspaper of the year in 2019, a first for the newspaper. Photographed are Leah Seator (centre) picking up the award in Inverness, with colleagues Sarah Sutherland (right), and Kerry Martin (left). The Orcadian is also currently shortlisted for Scottish Weekly Newspaper of the Year.

With its rolling hills, brisk sea air and breathtaking views, the Orkney archipelago has a lot to offer but for a young Antrim-born teenager forced to move here with her farming parents, it was a big and unwelcome change.

In 1996, Leah Seator moved to the Orkney Islands at the age of 14, leaving friends, family and her life in Northern Ireland behind.