Photographic glass plates of stars, with words and music, show night sky discoveries of the 18th-century astronomer Caroline Herschel. In the background you can hear a recording of her own words, interwoven with specially created music. The audiovisual installation was created by the Orkney artist Lynda Laird while working as artist-in-residence for the Royal Astronomical Society through its bicentennial year of 2020.

From the Carina Nebula to the Starburst Galaxy, from the Nebra Sky Disk to the James Webb telescope: 100 artwork squares were created around the world and stitched together for the Royal Astronomical Society’s 200th birthday in 2020. The quilt has been specially brought to Orkney by the RAS, for display in the Cathedral.

From a crystal set to a U-boat radio, the Museum is a treasure chest of radio and social history. You can see early thermionic valve radios, and also Orkney’s first jukebox. There is the transmitter that sent wartime messages in Morse Code from Holm to Bomber and Coastal Command, and the Morse key that linked North Ronaldsay to the outside world through all weathers from before World War I.

An exhibition inspired by the story of how Dr Kathleen Drew Baker saved the Japanese sushi industry. Her research on the life cycle of the seaweed known as laver (in Japan, nori) earned her the title in Japan of 'Mother of the Sea'. The exhibition includes over a dozen artists who work with seaweed in printmaking, photography, painting, textiles and sculpture.

Victoria Crowe, renowned for her landscapes and portraits of subjects including Professor Peter Higgs, made two trips to Orkney as part of her Royal Scottish Academy/Pier Arts Centre Residency award in 2022. She looked specifically at the contrasting light around the summer and winter solstice, the two most extreme periods of the celestial cycle.

Looking back at two decades of excavation – and ahead to the project’s next phase, analysing, interpreting and publishing. Timed to mark the final season of excavation, this exhibition, the biggest in the Museum’s history, features hundreds of finds from the Ness never before displayed in public.