Latest News

Orkney Islands Council is excited to share an event celebrating the Orkney dialect, taking place at Kirbuster Farm Museum, on Saturday 25 July from 2:00-3:30pm.

Orkney Islands Council is delighted to invite the public to a special open day at Kirbuster Farm Museum on Saturday 11 July, 11am to 4pm, celebrating ‘Sooans’, a traditional heritage food made from oats that was once a dietary staple in Orkney homes.

A new art exhibition exploring Orkney's historical connections to the transatlantic slave trade goes on display in Orkney Museum’s recently transformed exhibition room and runs from Saturday 4 July until Saturday 26 September 2026. 

Orkney Islands Council's Resettlement team, in partnership with the Pier Arts Centre, has organised a new exhibition by Ukrainian refugees now living in Orkney which compares the similarities between Scottish and Ukrainian folklore.

Routine survey work is due to take place on the Kirkwall Town Hall this Sunday 9 March - weather permitting.

The Orkney Museum will present a timely new exhibition, "Unnatural Arrivals - The Stoat Crisis in Orkney", opening on 9 May and running until 20 June 2026. The exhibition is a collaboration between a selection of Orkney-based artists and the Orkney Native Wildlife Project, responding to the ecological impact of the recent arrival of stoats in the islands.

On Saturday 4 April, Orkney Museum will open ‘Lines of Light, Letters of George Mackay Brown’, a new exhibition by artist Ian Charles Scott celebrating his creative relationship with the poet.

The exhibition offers a concise but powerful look at Orkney during World War II, pairing recreated images-shot on original 1930s–40s cameras-with the historic photographs that inspired them.

Alongside these are displays of vintage cameras, uniforms, darkroom equipment, and a rolling film of the project, creating an immersive glimpse into how wartime photographers saw and documented the islands.

This week, Orkney Islands Council’s Museum Service organised a conservation and collection care training programme, funded by their Esmée Fairbairn Foundation grant, for heritage centres and organisations across the isles.

The second round of funding is open to applications for the 2025–26 Visual Artists and Craft Makers (VACMA) Awards, offering support for Orkney-based artists to develop new directions in their practice and deepen their skills.