This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Kemp, D. B., Van Manen, S. M., Pollitt, D. A. and Burgess, P. M. (2016), Investigating the preservation of orbital forcing in peritidal carbonates. Sedimentology, 63: 1701–1718., which has been published in final form at doi:10.1111/sed.12282. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.