The Spittal Broch in Watten is to be preserved when the quarry is extended johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/will-the-spittal-quarry-extension-destroy-an-ancient-broch-366079/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGoSwtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHT6gG62i4oxDUPtQPisS0u68QZhigPDOEOFGivPTE874CPqysV3L-AS9zw_aem_wRE0m3xn93AAQz4cQjYApw
Spittal Farm aka Spittal 2 survives to 1.7m but has been damaged by ploughing canmore.org.uk/site/8336/spittal-farm
wideford
Discovered this week in Onziebist tomb during UHI visit archaeologyorkney.com/2023/06/08/onziebist-rock-art/?fbclid=IwAR1ovcs1PTrrFKdwMDu_EUrUgoLcXpr-VU783UjpmCjHLzyF4Mca-q3KDBw
but other avenues to be looked at for the future facebook.com/TomboftheEagles/posts/pfbid0ASDnb2oBjnVJfbgdZsV2kdtd2hyBbJC5TAaPrXUoR5V6MW1DKfYTdFb1Rt2vX4aZl?__cft__[0]=AZVp7M7sXrIc8tmt8Z5WSLRBX908ZbNR7q-wV9nHEF-XtyefAfQBb6nd41oIh1rmJ6o_gcHMJJ9vPZzF1NyXuoIa6z6xsg2M1MV2gdFzpPAUDZM2fnQuXFdG-FRoMdqiMhOwlYxJ_uymIK494-rPnjAdSOJLFNXNkBShO3YHCvgb5A&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R
Found during work at the Finstown sub-station “A team from ORCA Archaeology, carrying out exploratory excavations at the proposed site of an electrical substation development in Orkney, has unearthed nine, half-metre tall stone-carved objects.” orkney.com/news/finstown-finds plenty of lovely images shown
found during present excavations archaeologyorkney.com/2017/08/28/amazing-finds-at-cata-sand-early-neolithic-houses-and-19th-century-whales/
CLOSED September 26th indefinitely owing to traffic concerns
Maes Howe and Tormiston Mill shut for the next fortnight
Last year the known burnt mound at Meur was removed to another site, now there is a larger and even earlier mound being excavated in the usual race against time.
facebook.com/31395967167/photos/a.222229797167.114824.31395967167/10152415664612168/?type=1 and Thursday’s edition of Around Orkney (available on Soundcloud now)
This has been fenced off. April 10th Radio Orkney had an item about the protection (they have now also covered it with matting owing to rabbit damage) but don’t say whether still accessible to the public. Fence visible on this pic themodernantiquarian.com/post/128081/great_sacred_monuments_of_stenness.html latest pic, Salt Knowe on the left
Today the site has produced its first carved stone ball, ironically found by a non-drinker as the discovery prize is whisky. I’m sure the excavation blog will mention it, so look on Orkneyjar tonight I guess. It follows the usual Orcadian form and has round bossed faces.
They still have a long way to catch up to the ‘domestic’ Skara Brae settlement with over half-a-dozen. Elsewhere three were found at the Hillheads in St Ola (one from the circular enclosure/fort) and one each from Sanday, the Links of Noltland in Westray (last year), Orphir (thought to be from Bu [geophys found a double ring feature in the Bu area]), an unidentified Bignor in Stenness itself, and lastly one at Tamaskirk in Rendall.
Thursaday 8.00 in the St Magnus Centre on Palace Road, Kirkwall – results of this year’s dig including tomb. Free talk ‘’Snatched from the Sea : Excavations at Swandro, the story so far.’‘
A geophysics image produced for an investigation at Redland in the parish of Firth of a site occupied ~3300-2000BCE clearly shows a boundary around round houses, and this wall/ditch has been compared by those concerned with the Great Wall at the Ness of Brodgar in the parish of Stenness.
orkneyarchaeologysociety.org.uk/index.php/features/redlands-investigtion
July 17th to August 22nd (sic)
The Warebeth area of Stromness parish has its history pushed back into the Neolithic, my suspicions about a knoll in the feld right of the road coming down to the cemetery/broch proved right. In this natural mound archaeologist potter Andrew Appleby has found the remains of a tomb, a situation resembling that of Crantit (thanks to the farmer this will remain undug for future generations).
This season’s dig is showing that rather than a broch this is at heart a (Neolithic) chambered tomb – there is an item in this morning’s Radio Orkney program (online later). There’s only another week to go and the Open Day is this Sunday, July 22nd, from 11.30.
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/2012/04/20/sixth-chamber-in-banks-chambered-tomb/
unfortunately this is not “The Orcadian” article by Craig Taylor, which has a photo
Appears on tonight’s “Digging For Britain”, BBC2 9 p.m. It is open to the public until Halloween and there is also a feed from the featured cell. It sits to the side of the Skerries Bistro.
An engineered road thought to have connected the Wrekin and Old Oswestry hillforts pre-dates R*man construction by several hundred years according to a summation of excavation newspaper reports (regarding Bayston Hill quarry) in the new Fortean Times, FT279
now resembling a segmented rolling-pin orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/0808114.jpg
Sigurd brings us up to date after 360 Production left us hanging orkneyjar.com/archaeology/?p=710
Already up to day 2 on 360 Productions’ YouTube channel (see links).
On Wyre about to start again (May 2nd) and will continue posting at facebook.com/pages/Braes-of-HaBreck-Wyre-a-Big-Dig-on-a-Small-Isle/196853287006365 .
bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11656142 with link to daily You Tube updates
youtube.com/user/360Production
September 18th in Kirkwall Rown Hall
Either collapsed or deliberately demolished..
bit.ly/ccv00C
Painted walls found Friday, a first for Britain and perhaps northern Europe.
orkneycommunities.co.uk/radioorkney.asp
from 9 or 10 a.m. 27th July to approx 8 a.m. 28th July 2010.
Had been thought to be Bronze Age but according to Dr. Kenneth Brophy in a talk tonight the C14 dates came back Fiday and place it in the Neolithic with dates in the range 3000-2800 B.C.E. pre-dating the henge and the timber circle
Orkneyjar’s report here ow.ly/1eGbP – much clearer pics than “The Orcadian”.
As the only other NMRS for Damsay is a site the excavator thought to be a Norse castle but is now believed to have been a broch it is probable that the orthostats in one photo could relate to this. Though a short talk was given on preliminary Rising Tide findings beside these nowt has appeared in print or in the report, so from memory the Bay of Firth has in it likely chambered mounds and (one or more) stone circles
from Sigurd Towrie
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/oicfunding2010.htm
“Orkney Today” and “The Orcadian” of June 4th 2009 report the discovery of a potential tomb at Heathfield, beehive shaped and built straight into the bedrock. There is a lintelled space opposite the corbelled cell. Way back “The Orcadian” of March 1st 1864 reports that drainage works on a new Wideford Hill farm revealed a large coverstone in the cut with cells beneath. A roughly 2½’ long 2’ wide central passage, blocked with stones at the northern end, ran NNW/SSE The southern end widened out, opening into two chambers in opposite directions, the southern one with a floor 4” above both the northern one and the passage. Edge-set slabs form the sides and ends of the northern chamber, which measures 4” by 2½” and some 2’2” high and has a reduced entrance some 2½’ across . Except for one edge-set slab at the back the southern chamber is of walling, and it measures 3½” by 2’10” by 2’ and the passage enters directly into it. George Petrie took measurements and made a plan of it. As with the present site nothing marked the site on the surface.
If, as seems likely, this is the same site then there is less potential for new finds here.
Caroline Wickham-Jones differs “as this is away from the farm and not related to any previous drainage” and asks “whether there is more than one of these in the vicinity”
Found during this season’s dig at Green
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/eday2008.htm (the first came from Eday Manse in 1861 and resembles those from Pierowall [1981] and Pickaquoy [1864]).
nice pics again orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/index.html
posting this as finally some photos (and short vid) that show something, including a peeled stone orkneyjar.com/archaeology/ringofbrodgar/index.html
This fortnight’s excavation of the Outer Green Hill ‘broch’ has revealed a Neolithic chambered cairn ( orkneyjar.com/archaeology/greenhill.htm with photos)
The promised excavations are finally underway. The head is in favour of a Viking chief’s settlement, the traditional view is an early Viking monastery, but they don’t rule out something previous
bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/scotland_aod.shtml?scotland/aroundorkney (for today). Myself I would like to know about the unnoted lower promontory wall ( megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=28653 )as it looks to date from a period when the brough had better connection to the ‘mainland’ ,but hey-ho
A radically different picture of the prehistoric landscape around Orkney’s World Heritage Site is beginning to emerge – a landscape which perhaps didn’t feature the Stenness and Harray lochs.
Preliminary results from an archaeo-environmental project indicate that, prior to 1500BC, the Stenness loch was an area of wet marshland surrounding small pools or lochans.
Geophysics has revealed that thiis is not a chambered cairn but more like Silbury Hill, as with a site at Dunragit in Dumfries and Galloway, the BA cist and animal bones from ?feasting towards the top being later additions orkneyjar.com/archaeology/saltknowe.htm
The hazelnut was found in a layer beneath the Bronze Age burial mound at Longhowe during excavations earlier this year. The charred shell has been dated to 6820-6660 BC, and its discovery pushes back the known settlement of Orkney by 3,000 years. Mesolithic settlement has long been known from stone tools, but the nut has provided the first definite date.
Now downloadable at ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/library/des/index.cfm as a .pdf for each year from 1947-2001. However these are facsimiles, so you really need to know which year you want as these won’t be truly searchable
The Hunterian museum is re-assembling his(mostly Northern Isles) donation and adding this to their catalogue as they go huntsearch.gla.ac.uk
At present this is text-only but images will be added over the coming months
Orkneyjar will be posting updates on this season’s dig that starts Monday :-
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/brodgar2007/index.html
Today Radio Orkney reports that a great number of Mesolithic tools have come to light, though presently this is thought to represent a refurbishment workshop rather than a factory per se. They urgently require volunteers to sieve the whole of the spoil heap for microliths missed by the main thrust of the excavation
no pic of rock art yet but
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/harrayearthhouse2.htm
Another souterrain has come to light in Harray (see Dale) in ploughing a field for barley . Historic Scotland has given a 3 week grant for its excavation, no visitors allowed. With it a hole in the same field reminiscent of that found by the South Keigar earthhouse in Deerness, Orkney.
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/harrayearthhouse.htm
2nd week on Corrigall earthhouse :-
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/harrayearthhouse2.htm
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/ditch2006.htm filled with water [only partial view]
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