Orkney Wireless Museum

The Orkney Wireless museum houses a collection of military and domestic wireless equipment that was collected by the late James MacDonald (1927-1988) and shows the importance of wireless communication in Orkney during World War 2.

Jim MacDonald was born and brought up on South Ronaldsay, where he was locally educated and served his apprenticeship as an electrician and radio repairman. The museum was founded in 1983 when Jim was persuaded to display his collection in the family home. After he died of cancer in 1988, his family carried out his wishes to develop the museum.

The collection includes: early domestic radio and wartime communications equipment, early advertising and posters and an archive of photographs depicting wartime forces. There is also a collection of domestic loudspeakers, mechanical gramophones and needles, electric gramophones and radiograms and Orkney’s first juke box from 1955.