Sanday couple strike archaelogical gold

Sanday couple Malcolm and Jackie Sinclair were stunned when they stumbled upon what archaeologists have described as a very significant find.

During routine agricultural digging, the couple unearthed what appears to be an eighth or ninth century pictish stone, with a Christian cross engraved upon it.

Jackie said: “Once the rain had washed the sand off, we realised it might be something, and after we cleaned it off it revealed this amazing cross!”

The couple called in the help of county archaeologist Julie Gibson who went on to do her own archaelogical analysis and described the findings as potentially crucial to our understanding of the pictish period.

She said: “One of the questions of the Pictish period is how Orkney fits into east coast Scottish Pictish kingdoms, and the presence of this cross lends itself to the idea that Orkney may well have been part of an overarching Pictish kingdom.”

Read the full story in the current edition of The Orcadian.