The lack of trees on Orkney has meant that generations of people have relied upon driftwood and whalebone for building materials. Orkney’s Neolithic settlements had driftwood and whalebone roofs covered in turf over 5,000 years ago. Here’s a whalebone from a 50ft Sperm Whale washed onto one of Westray’s beaches. This one’s not much use for building but it’s still beautiful and fascinating to look at. I now just need to work out which bit of the whale it is.

Coastal erosion at the Links of Noltland leaves scattered stones over a neolithic settlement quicky disappearing with the wind.

The dunes at the Links of Noltland show their erosion by the wind – the grass tufts left are six feet above the current sand surface and a complete neolithic settlement and bronze age village lie just inches below the surface of the shifting sands.

I’m standing next to a 5000 year old house looking at a bead from a 5000 year old necklace. It was made from a cow’s tooth by someone who lived on this spot in the neolithic age. Someone who wore animal skins, who farmed barley and kept cattle. Someone who worked bone and antler and whalebone to make pins and tools and jewellery. Someone who used decorative pots and cooked on a fire. Someone with friends and family.

The Links of Noltland is a perfect example of rescue archaeology. As I stand looking at the dig I can see the newly uncovered soil of the neolithic being blown away by the wind as the dunes erode and the sea encroaches. Kept safe for thousands of years by being trapped between boulder clay below and sand above, the remains of buildings are perfect with all their context still preserved. Flint, bones and pottery are scattered in the ground fresh as the day they were covered.

In five years it will all have blown away.

The most important archaeological find of last year was found on the remote Orkney island of Westray; or at least it was until someone unearthed a massive hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold treasure in Staffordshire. Now only a few archaeologists – and last night, watchers of BBC2′s Digging for Britain – know about the Orkney Venus or the Westray Wife as she is known. The Orkney Venus came second in the category Best Archaeological Discovery at the British Archaeological Awards in London.

This figure was carved 4,500 years ago on Westray by a neolithic farmer and left behind when they finally abandoned their settlement. I’ve visited the Links of Noltland many times and adore the wildness of the dunes and the crashing of the waves on the beach at nearby Grobust. It’s a stunning, harsh environment and the archaeologists there are a great group of friendly and dedicated people.

The figure is the oldest representation of a human ever found in Scotland and is currently in the Westray Heritage Centre before going on tour.

Second place is nowhere? Westray is far away, but it’s certainly not nowhere on the archaeological map.

In 1136, Earl Rognvald went to church at Pierowall in Westray at the start of his campaign to subjugate Orkney. Or at least that’s what the Orkneyinga Saga says. In the 13th Century, Lady Kirk was built and then extensively remodelled in the 17th Century. Today it lies in ruins. There are still fascinating remains of the past there. Here is a beautifully preserved gravestone from 1676, with very similar inscriptions to those found in St Magnus cathedral in Kirkwall on the mainland of Orkney. The graveyard was still used until 1879.

The hand that carved the stone is so far away from me, yet so near.

Today’s papers have front pages: “Leave the ferry service alone” (The Orcadian) and “Heated debate at ferry review” (Orkney Today). Page one of The Orcadian also contains “New ‘zigzag’ paintwork from the Ness of Brodgar” about the incredible find of neolithic painted stone interior walls, whilst in Orkney Today one has to wait until page 3 for “Zigzag chevrons discovered at Brodgar.” The real news is on page 4 (The Orcadian) with “‘Escapade’ sees 18-year-old fined £1,050″, with “Car crash teen is lucky to be alive” on page 3 of Orkney Today. And so it goes on. Until, that is, page 32 (The Orcadian) which has “Record seventh year in a row for Orkney’s inter-county hockey team” whilst page 36 of Orkney Today has “Victory again for Orkney ladies…”. I didn’t miss anything, but 85p each just made sure.

What neither of the newspapers say is that tonight there’s a 10% chance of northern lights or aurora borealis because of extreme solar activity. I did wonder where to look in the sky to see them, but I’m reliably told that north is the recommended direction to look. Northern Light is also the name of a beer produced by the Orkney Brewery. I’m told that after five bottles you have a 20% chance of seeing the northern lights. It’s just that you’re far less likely to remember them in the morning.

Orkney Today and The Orcadian both say it’s going to be cloudy, but I’m going out now with my compass in hand for an experience to remember.

Tasting notes:

Orkney Brewery Northern Light: superb light and refreshing beer, full of flavour and shining in the glass – as clear as Orkney skies and waters

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Looking out across the Knowe o’ Skea where an important Iron Age burial site gives tantalising clues about the culture of our ancestors.

Archaeologist Sean Rice holds a piece of neolithic grooved ware on the Links of Noltland.

Wandering along the beach at Grobust on Westray in Orkney I spot a group of people with wheelbarrows kneeling in the sand dunes. It can only be the archaeologists.

Neolithic grooved-ware pottery, worked bone objects, stone tools and flint abound, with a series of interconnecting buildings revealed in the unstable dunes.