Scottish primrose at Yesnaby

Today was our first working day; the grey sky and persistent drizzle were an inauspicious start. I was developing a coldsore, so we decided to go into Stromness to find medication. We followed the map, which showed the main road passing through the town, but this was in fact a single-track cobbled street. Luckily we were sufficiently early that we only met cats coming the other way.

After Danish pastries for elevenses, we donned our waterproof trousers and set off to our first site - a Local Nature Reserve known as Happy Valley. This boggy hillside on Orkney was cultivated by nature enthusiast Edwin Harrold for over 50 years and he transformed the area from a treeless landscape into the island's first miniature forest, complete with a sheltered garden. Since his death in 2005, locals have worked to ensure the site remains a haven for wildlife.

Fortunately the weather improved over the course of the morning and a reasonable number of insects were recorded. We spent the afternoon getting comparative data from a nearby uncultivated hillside, Russadale, and by this time the sun had decided to shine. The views from Russadale were absolutely stunning, and we also found an old sandstone quarry with orchids, eyebrights and marsh cinquefoil.

It stays light until about 11pm and as the weather was still good we decided to head off to Yesnaby to hunt for the Scottish primrose, which I've wanted to see all my life. In the wild it's confined to Caithness and Orkney, where it grows in moist but well-drained and grazed natural grassland near the coast. It is one of our few endemic plants, that is one that does not occur elsewhere in the world.

I'd been warned that it was hard to find, being only a few centimetres in height, with a tiny rosette of leaves, about the size of a daisy. We knew where to hunt, and it wasn't long before we found hundreds of plants, in a grassy sward with spring squill seedheads, frog orchids and Foula eyebright. I'd been afraid that we'd miss the main flowering period, but we found plenty of clusters of pretty, dark purple flowers, with a bright yellow throat. So exciting!

After I'd photographed them we walked along to the Brough of Bigging, and watched Arctic terns feeding their young, and puffins coming in to land on the cliffs below us. We eventually returned to the cottage for dinner at 10pm - very, very happy!