Historic Scotland’s annual free weekend took place on Saturday and Sunday – allowing visitors access to some of Orkney’s best-known historic sites completely free of charge.

Over the weekend, admission charges were be dropped at the Bishop’s and Earl’s Palaces, the Broch of Gurness, Hackness Battery, Maeshowe and Skara Brae.

The search for missing diver, Steven Ottewell, in Scapa Flow has been called off.

On Monday, Grampian Police¹s specialist dive team was called in to help with the search but failed to make a find.

Mr Ottewell, 38, from Cuddington in Cheshire, and formerly of Selson, Nottingham, was reported missing during a dive in Scapa Flow on Saturday morning.

The Coastguard rescue helicopter, the Stromness and Longhope-based lifeboats and Coastguard rescue teams from Stromness and Hoy were all involved in the search for Mr Ottewell.

The police are seeking information after three incidents where vehicles caused damage.

Between March 28 and Sunday, April 6, a wall at a house in Dundas Street, Stromness was damaged by an unknown vehicle.

A Honda Civic car parked in Hornersquoy, Kirkwall, was damaged by a vehicle between 7.30am and 3pm on Monday, April 7. And the wing mirrors on a VW Transporter and a Renault Laguna parked in Quoybanks Crescent, Kirkwall, were damaged between 11pm on Wednesday and 7.50am on Thursday.

The windows of two houses in Kirkwall have been smashed and the police would like to hear from anyone with any information about the incidents.

Between 11am on Tuesday and 12.45pm on Wednesday, a window was put in at a house in Willowburn Road.

About 2.15am on Thursday, a window was smashed in a house at the top of Meadowbank, near to Hordaland.

Kirkwall police can be contacted on 872241.

The Pier Arts Centre has been awarded £39,500 from the Scottish Government's Recognition Scheme - an initiative to ensure that the country's important art collections are cared for, protected and promoted.

The money will allow the Stromness gallery, whose collection was recognised as being significant to the Scotland last year, to employ a member of staff for a 12-month-period.

They will be dedicated to developing and improving the management and care of the collection and assist in its day-to-day administration, interpretation and promotion. 

The winners of the 2008 Taste of Orkney food awards will be announced in Kirkwall on Saturday night.

This year’s nominees are:

• Best retailer: Judith Glue, Dounby Butcher, E. Flett Butcher (Stromness).
• Best lunch/high tea: Orkney Auction Mart, Appie’s Tea Room (Sandwick), Birsay Bay Tea Room.
• Best Takeaway: Dil Se, Jolly Fish and Farm Produce, Gerrie’s Ice Cream Parlour (Stenness).
• Best Evening Meal: The Hamnavoe (Stromness), Woodwick House (Evie), The Orkney Hotel.
• Best supplier: E. Flett Butcher, Grimbister Farm Cheese, E. R. & T. Craigie.

Food demonstrations and displays will take place upstairs in the Town Hall, between 11am and 3pm.

The awards will be presented at 7.30pm in the town hall.

Orkney is to host an international conference focusing on maritime societies of the Viking and Medieval World next month.

The conference aims to place Viking Age and Medieval Orkney in its European setting - bringing together scholars studying island and coastal societies of the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the North Atlantic.

Running from May 31 to June 4, the four-day event will feature presentations and discussions of current interpretations of the Viking and Medieval maritime world, presented by leading speakers from Britain, Europe and Orkney.

Orkney Islands Council will fly the Orkney flag from all council buildings next Wednesday, April 16, to commemorate St Magnus Day.

That date has long been recognised as St Magnus Day but has never been marked by any council-initiated regular event. 

Police are continuing the search operation for the missing diver in Scapa Flow - who has been named as Steven Darren Ottewell, 38, recently of Cuddington, Cheshire.

Assistance is being received by Grampian Police's specialist dive team, who are currently assessing the situation with police in Orkney.

It is expected that a remote operating vehicle (ROV) will be used.

Orcadian film-maker Raymond Besant has scooped an award in the International Wildlife Film Festival in Montana.

Raymond, who now lives in Aberdeenshire, won Best of Category in the amateur section and also received a Merit Award for Scientific Content.

Police would like to speak to anyone who witnessed a road accident on the Holm Straight on Thursday night.

According to a police spokesman, about 11.30 pm on Thursday night, a car driving south on the Holm straight had to swerve to avoid an overtaking vehicle travelling north.

The south-bound driver’s emergency action resulted in the car crashing, but the overtaking vehicle did not stop.

Orkney Islands Council has imposed an exclusion zone around the wreck of the Markgraf in Scapa Flow, while a search continues for a missing diver.

Shetland Coastguard was contacted at 10.50am on Saturday by the dive boat Karen, reporting that a diver had not surfaced after a dive on the Markgraf.

Two divers had been diving when one got into difficulty and only one of the divers resurfaced.

The Coastguard Rescue Helicopter was scrambled and the Stromness and Longhope lifeboats launched. They were joined Coastguard rescue teams.

Police are appealing for information after a distinctive black and white Landrover Defender was taken without the owner’s permission at the weekend.

The vehicle, registration number L276 ABS, was taken from the Yesnaby clifftop carpark during the evening of Saturday, April 5.

The vehicle has still not been found and police are urging people to be on the look out for the Landrover, which is painted with black and white “cow-like” markings.