The artist behind a new exhibition at the Orkney Museum took inspiration from a book retelling stories of selkie folk.

Sarah McFadyen’s new collection of paintings is known as ‘The People of The Sea’ after a book of the same title by David Thomson, published in 1954.

An uplifting musical collaboration took place in Hoy on Monday 27 March with the pupils of North Walls Community School performing with musicians from Gordonstoun School, who were on tour in Orkney.

Not only was the concert a chance for the pupils to work together, but the event also raised around £350 for the RNLI Longhope lifeboat.

A round up of road works underway or soon to start in the county, for week starting 3 April 2023.

A number of local athletes have been selected to benefit from funding to enable them to keep on track with their chosen sports.

Twelve athletes in Orkney have been awarded the sportscotland special grant to help sportspeople in regional and rural Scotland access competitive and training opportunities.

A worldwide pandemic, what seems like a never-ending onslaught of bugs, a cost-of-living crisis and a period of industrial action has impacted on children and young people attending at schools across the nation, and Orkney is no different.

Since Covid, schools in the county have seen lower levels of attendance overall – from 95.6% in 2018/19 (just above the Scottish average) to 91% at present – the same as the Scottish average.

There are a number of potential reasons for this – some pupil and parental anxiety following the pandemic period and return to school, an increase in sickness absences following the pandemic, to a much lesser degree the recent industrial action and there will be other more complex factors.