Welcome

Welcome to the website of the Orkney Archaeology Society.  Here you can find information about what the Society does & its history, events we are organising, the organisation of archaeological activity in Orkney and other useful and interesting information and links.

Orkney Archaeology Society is a charity registered in Scotland (SC030611) which developed from the Friends of Orkney Archaeological Trust - click here for the history.

If you would like to support the work of the OAS please make a donation by visiting our donation   page , or consider becoming a member of the society.

The OAS supports the ongoing work at the Ness of Brodgar If you are looking for the Ness of Brodgar Excavation's dedicated  website it is   here . 

The aims of Orkney Archaeology Society are:

• to support the management and development of Orkney's archaeological & historical resource by charitable means;

and in furtherance thereof

• to serve the interests of the membership of the Society and the general public by providing information on archaeology and archaeological activity in Orkney through publications, meetings, conferences, exhibitions, projects and other activities and events.

To work towards these aims we organise a programme of walks and talks, usually including a guided trip to one of the islands in the summer, dig visits and talks on the work going on in archaeology in Orkney.  We also include visiting speakers talking on European and world archaeology when we can.  See the Calendar or the News Blog rfor current information on upcoming events.  We publish a twice yearly newsletter for our members to keep our widely scattered membership up to date with current work and ideas.  We have a publication of our own on the work done at Mine Howe and act as distributors for Rising Tides, by the county archaeologist Julie Gibson - A new edition 'Rising Tides Revisited' was published in July 2012.

We provide some financial assistance to archaeological projects in Orkney and keep a volunteers list to help match up people with time and enthusiasm with projects that need some help.

On an annual basis since 2007, we award the Daphne Lorimer Bursary to a student on the Masters in Archaeological Practice course run by Orkney College – this bursary covers the fees of a student who has gained a place on the course by academic merit but would otherwise be unable to raise the funds to take up the place.  The bursary is usually our biggest annual expenditure and is the focus of a yearly fundraising effort.

Since 2008, we award the Judith Robertson Memorial Prize at graduation to a student from the Masters course.

The Society is run according to our Constitution by a management committee, which currently has eleven members.