The skull of the Minehowe skeleton unearthed in the summer of 2004. At the bottom of the picture, on the chest, is the fragment of deer skull/antler, with the six distinctive drill marks clearly visible. (Picture: Sigurd Towrie)

This section of Orkneyjar.com was established in 2003, as a means of gathering, publishing, and archiving, the archaeology articles I write for The Orcadian newspaper.

Long before I became a reporter for the newspaper, I had a keen interest in the county’s history and archaeology.

In Orkney, there’s always some sort of excavation work going on, usually in the more clement summer months, and as a reporter with an interest as (some) knowledge of the subject, it soon fell to me to cover them.

And I must say, it has been a privilege to have been involved, in my own small way, in excavations such as Minehowe, the Ring of Brodgar, Stonehall and the Ness of Brodgar – to name but a few.

These days, as The Orcadian’s news editor, my expeditions away from the desk are less common, although I still make a point of getting the shorthand notebook out and handling the archaeological stories myself. The help and support of my archaeological colleagues in the county continue to make this task a real pleasure.

Unless otherwise credited, all articles in this section were written by me.