Apart from during the Covid Pandemic and when Mike hurt his ankle and couldn’t drive, we’ve visited the dig at The Cairns, South Ronaldsay every year.
This year is the last digging season, and we went to the site with mixed feelings – wanting to see for ourselves what developments there have been – while being aware that what we’d see, including all that fine stone-work, will soon disappear under the earth again.
For those who can’t get to the site, there is a daily Dig Diary…
The day was soggy, but as these days it’s either tipping down rain or baking heat, we decided to Carpe Diem and went for it.
When we arrived I realized that I’d forgotten my walking stick – a necessity on rough ground – but our resourceful guide Kevin went and found me some kind of trowel-on-a-long stick-thing to use instead, which was perfect. Thank you Kevin!
As we approached the Broch, Kevin explained that this area is where metal-working took place. I asked were there iron-bearing rocks to be found locally, and the answer is that the metalworkers will have obtained Bog-iron from the bog in the near-by vale. Friend Pete is a Blacksmith, who sings the praises of Bog-iron, so the iron produced at The Cairns will have been good-quality, strong iron – probably much in demand, not only locally – opportunities for trade and exchange of goods?
A view of the impressive, curving stone-work of the exterior of the Broch
The distance between the deep pit in the foreground and the interior of the Broch shows the thickness of the walls, which contained a stairway
The central space
A view to the South, which places the Broch in the landscape
The ‘dip’ in the wall marks where the entrance to the stairway was purposely made to collapse when the Broch was being de-commissioned
Placing the Broch in the landscape, to the North
The ‘Cells’
At the base of the wall in one of the cells, is a rounded, peck-marked stone
A builder wouldn’t normally place a round stone among neat, flat levels of stonework – could this be re-use of a significant stone – possibly even from the Neolithic, when they did like to peck-mark stone? Just conjecture but, ain’t it interesting!
Broch ‘furniture’?
The Cairns – Ancient & Modern!
The souterrain has been removed, but it’s still possible to see the entranceway to the Broch
I’ve previously written of the ‘holy stone’…
Kevin told us that last weekend, in the night, it fell over. It hasn’t broken, or even cracked – it just….fell over and there it lies. It’s the vaguely yellowish slab in the middle of this picture
A stone with a different kind of hole – probably for a door-hinge
Similar indentations in a stone – but why two of them?
Turn that stone over, and it’s a quern-stone…
One of many found at The Cairns
Towards the end of our tour, Kevin explained what happening here
Excavation disturbed a field drain, but when the water flows down to a certain level, it forms a sump and doesn’t rise any higher, as the Iron Age drainage system takes over. ‘Oh – and it makes me wonder’.
The site tents, with just a small portion of the samples which will need post-excavation examination
Speaking of which, though digging at the site will finish this year, funding is needed to try to make sense of what has been found – so we posted some money in the donations bucket. Please…do…too!
And then, something of a tradition after vising The Cairns…The Relic Café at the Fossil & Heritage Centre for lunch…..yummy yummy yummy
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