The Newark Project is a three-year archaeological, historical and social history project, which will culminate in the Orkney Museum’s 2022 summer exhibition. The archaeology covers a long time span, which includes two Iron Age earth houses (also known as ‘souterrains’, an underground structure which is still a bit of a mystery with different explanations from archaeologists), an early Christian chapel with a graveyard containing burials from the Pictish to Medieval Norse, c600AD-1300. A class 2 Pictish symbol stone has also been found there recently. The name ‘Newark’ (New Work) comes from the 16th century manor house which once stood on this site.

This graveyard is suffering terribly from coastal erosion, hence the project. There was an excavation carried out here under Don Brothwell of York University from 1968-1974. This project would also love to hear from anyone who dug at Newark and who has memories or photographs to share. You can learn more about the project by following this link.

http://www.hopkinsweb.org.uk/orkney/