Orkney Archaeology Society
Review2024
Buy our
Review
Ages of Orkney
2026 Calendar
2026 OAS Calendar available
Ages of Orkney
Ages of Orkney
Visit our on-line shop
Visit our On-Line Shop
Ages of Orkney
  • Home
  • Brochtoberfest
  • OAS Shop
  • News
  • Events
  • Grants
    • OAS Grants awarded
    • Applying for a grant
  • Information
    • Old Reviews – Free to download
    • Contact Us
    • Our History
    • Committee Details
    • Orkney Archaeology
    • Reading list for Orkney Archaeology
    • Sites in Orkney
    • Volunteering
    • Constitution
    • AGM Minutes
  • Donate
  • Membership
  • Links

Our YouTube Channel

Videos of our Talks

Upcoming Events

Jul 11
All day

Open day: The Cairns

Jul 27
11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Open Day: Ness of Brodgar

View Calendar

Categories

  • Brochtoberfest (5)
  • Digital Resources (8)
  • Digs (22)
  • Grants (2)
  • Interesting Orkney Links (11)
  • News (80)
  • OAS Legacy (4)
  • Previous events (22)
  • Talks (27)
  • Things to do (11)
  • Tourism (10)
  • Videos (32)
  • Volunteering (10)
  • Welcome (1)

Archives

  • June 2025 (4)
  • April 2025 (1)
  • March 2025 (2)
  • February 2025 (3)
  • November 2024 (1)
  • August 2024 (1)
  • June 2024 (2)
  • May 2024 (1)
  • February 2024 (3)
  • November 2023 (2)
  • October 2023 (4)
  • July 2023 (2)
  • June 2023 (1)
  • April 2023 (1)
  • March 2023 (1)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • November 2022 (2)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (2)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (3)
  • September 2021 (1)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • June 2021 (2)
  • May 2021 (4)
  • April 2021 (4)
  • March 2021 (2)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (4)
  • March 2020 (12)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • August 2019 (3)
  • July 2019 (3)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (2)
  • April 2019 (5)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (4)
  • January 2019 (3)
  • December 2018 (2)
  • November 2018 (2)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • September 2018 (2)
  • August 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (7)
  • June 2018 (5)
  • February 2018 (5)

Legal stuff

Privacy & Terms
Constitution
Grant Application

 

News , Tourism

Press release: Consultation on the future of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney

by Webmaster October 19, 2021 No Comments
Brodgar Crowds

Orkney Archaeology Society Press Release – 10 October 2021

Subject: Consultation on the future of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney

A partnership of the Council, Historic Environment Scotland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise have brought forward radical plans for the development of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site (WHS). These include the introduction of a network of pedestrian and cycles paths, a Gateway Centre and new tool to help local people and visitors to the county interpret the Site.

Orkney Archaeology Society (OAS) have submitted their comments to the consultation and broadly welcomes the proposals.

The OAS submission states that the suggested investment in the WHS is very exciting:

The proposals, especially the proposed interpretative centre, will give visitors (both local and tourists) to the Centre new tools to understand what they are looking at. The suggestion to create a network of paths for walking and cycling that stretched from the Unstan Tomb in the West, Maeshowe in the East, the Brodgar car park in the North and the main road (A965) from the South will transform how we experience the sites all for the better.

However, the submission goes on to state that:

The proposal is yet to reflect the strengths of the very well-developed Orcadian community heritage sector (Orkney Archaeology Society, Orkney Heritage Society, and the myriad of community heritage groups across the parishes and islands of Orkney) and our archaeology sectors (the UHI Archaeology Institute etc.) A firm commitment is needed that these groups will be included as key partners in the further development of the plans, particularly in the design and content of the information being given to visitors whether that be via information boards, electronic bar codes and other media.

The submission goes on to state, while the Society does not disagree that visitors to the sites could contribute to their upkeep, access to the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness must remain free and the case for charging for the use of the car parks has not been effectively made. They are concerned that charging may lead to visitors parking on the roads, in the passing points and in Stenness Village and that a full impact assessment was needed before progressing this idea further. Instead, the Society said the partners should explore whether using a percentage of the Harbour Fees paid by visiting cruise ships would be a better way forward. They argue that this would be an excellent way for the cruise companies to contribute to the tourism infrastructure of the county.

David Drever, Chair of OAS said:

“OAS is very excited by the proposals, but the final plan needs to be drawn up with the full involvement of Orkney’s community Heritage Sector, local archaeologists working in the field and the local community. We don’t want to be consulted on a plan drawn up by others, we should have a core role in writing the plan.”

The submission to HES by OAS

Heart-of-Neolithic-Orkney-v1Download

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Previous Iron Working, Feasting and Social Identity at Mine Howe, Orkney4 years ago
  • Next St Magnus Graffiti Project gets a mention4 years ago

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Facebook

Facebook

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to our web site and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Contact Us

  • Home
  • Brochtoberfest
  • OAS Shop
  • News
  • Events
  • Grants
  • Information
  • Donate
  • Membership
  • Links
2025 Orkney Archaeology Society. Donna Theme powered by WordPress