May 6, 2025
Just east of John O’ Groats at a place called Robert’s Haven, you can see fragments of drystone walls and dark coloured soils full of pottery, shell, and fish bone eroding out of the dunes. Thanks to an archaeological investigation by James Barrett in the early 1990s,...
Dec 5, 2024
Going through the records after a survey is always a pleasure and is often when the true significance of a place is revealed. Borosdale Bay near Rodel on the Isle of Harris is a great example. The falling tide uncovered an array of stone structures across the...
May 9, 2022
Site 8915 on the SCAPE register is Sgeir nam Portan. Derived from the Gaelic sgeir, originally Old Norse rocks exposed as tides drop (the same derivation as Skerry), and portan (an alternative version of partan), small edible sea-crab of a black colour. Skerry of the...
Nov 11, 2019
Excavation and reconstruction Over four seasons of excavation between 2004 and 2007, SCAPE, GUARD, the Adopt-a-Monument Scheme and the Unst community investigated an eroding mound on the beach at Sandwick on Unst – the northernmost of the Shetland Isles. The...
Nov 11, 2019
Excavation, reconstruction and interpretation Burnt mounds are common sites around Shetland, often found at the coast. They’re usually large mounds of burnt stones which have been heated and then plunged into water, and are always found near a source of fresh water....
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