Baha'i Faith in Orkney
Orkney is a cluster of islands lying roughly sixteen kilometres north of the north coast of Scotland. The Baháʼí faith first arrived in the main town, Kirkwall in 1953, having been established on the Scottish mainland about a decade earlier. History In September 1953 English Bahá’i Charles Dunning arrived in Kirkwall, inspired by the Guardian of the Bahá’i Faith, Shoghi Effendi, who encouraged believers to settle in unopened territories during the Ten Year Crusade. As the first Bahá’i to open the Orkney Islands to the Bahá’i Faith during the Ten Year Crusade he was appointed as a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh by the Guardian. Charles Dunning was 68 years of age when he arrived in Kirkwall, and over the following four years he supported himself as a travelling salesman, attending churches and meetings and making friends where possible, despite being regarded with suspicion by many people in the local community. Eventually poor health required him to leave the island, and in February 1958 his place was taken by Daryoush Mehrabi, who travelled the 500 miles from Nottingham to Aberdeen by motorbike before catching the overnight ferry to Orkney. In February 1960 Daryoush married Jacqueline Thomas, a Bahá’i pioneer who was living