Influx of women replaced Orkney’s ancient genetic code

Orkney experienced a wave of immigration during the Bronze Age so large that it replaced most of the local population — and most of the newcomers were women.

This groundbreaking revelation comes from research by the Universities of Edinburghand Huddersfield, which published the findings from the ancient DNA analysis on Monday evening.

Although male lineages from the original Neolithic population survived for at least another thousand years, by the Iron Age, which followed the Bronze Age, they were largely replaced and are vanishingly rare today.

More on these findings, made by a team including Orcadian geneticist Professors Jim Wilson, in The Orcadian — available online and in shops from Thursday.