In more than 40 years of travelling to Orkney I have maintained a powerful connection and interest in the incredible body of historic and neolithic remains and archaeological sites and materials constantly being discovered and explored on the archipelago. What are the psychological and material connections between these histories and our current understanding of them and their location in space and time. These modest works begin to explore the complicated public understanding of the signposting of the Orcadian Neolithic, home to some of the best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe that, in recent research, increasingly show evidence of a dynamic society with connections binding Orkney to Ireland, to southern Britain and to continental Europe. Although research continues on many active excavations, there is still much that remains unknown about the societies that created these sites. My father lives in Kirkwall in Orkney and I am currently on the Board of Directors of the Pier Art Centre in Stromness, Orkney where my paternal family line is located. A recent highlight of this research is Orcadia, by Professor Mark Edmonds that traces the development of the Orcadian Neolithic from the early fourth millennium BC through to the end of the period nearly two thousand years later, using artefacts, architecture and the wider landscape to recreate the lives of Neolithic communities across the region, alongside his other works on Ness of Brodgar and other neolithic sites.

• https://www.royalscottishacademy.org