The North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme has commissioned Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology & Orkney College UHI to undertake an exciting new project to collect an oral history of the North Isles of Orkney. 

The National Lottery Heritage Funded two-year project involves ORCA Archaeology teaming up with Dr Tom Rendall from Orkney College UHI and Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon of the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute to interview, record and analyse the spoken history of these distinct and unique island communities.

Project Director Tom Rendall said, “The project will help us understand the detailed local events and people that have shaped the culture and heritage of these islands, and how the memories, experiences and reminiscences inform the present.”

Dr Rendall will be visiting the islands of Sanday, Westray, Eday, Papa Westray, North Ronaldsay, Shapinsay, Stronsay, Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre talking with local people. The plan involves interviewing not only the older members of the community, but also, unusually for a project such as this, the younger folk and those recently moved to the islands.

Topics for discussion will include examining the evolving cultural diversity of the islands and investigating how those new to the isles help to maintain life in an island community by embracing local heritage and culture – in effect carrying on a tradition of migrants to the isles from Viking to modern times.

The project will also help to explore the connections between the isles and raise awareness of the changing and vibrant culture on these islands. The team will also help to develop skills through training in interview and archiving techniques to pass knowledge on that could be used in the future. 

If you want to hear more about this exciting project then contact the ORCA Archaeology team through their email enquiries.orca@uhi.ac.uk 

You can also join the conversation through Twitter on #northislesnarrative

The North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme (NILPS) is a £4.5m project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, OIC, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and LEADER that will support projects to promote the culture, heritage and landscape of the North Isles and will run until 2023.  

The community archaeology excavation at the Burn of Swartigill is now nearing completion for this season.

The dig itself is organised by the Yarrows Heritage Trust in collaboration with the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute and ORCA Archaeology. Rick Barton, Project Officer with ORCA Archaeology, talks us through the finds of the week…..
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We have begun our third and final week of excavation for this season at the Burn of Swartigill in Thrumster, Caithness, and it’s time for an update from week two.
The theme has been one of rubble removal and soil sampling! Much of the later rubble within our round house, Structure B (or squashed rectangle house, to be more accurate) has been removed to reveal more of the courses masonry on the north and south arcs of the building. It is rewarding to see the shape and form of this building emerge after being obscured by rubble for so long. Work along the entrance way into Structure B on the east side has revealed a threshold stone!

In the centre of the structure, we are starting to see more ashy deposits associated with tantalising hints of edge set stone underneath the later hearth feature. This could be an earlier, more formal hearth, perhaps associated with the original occupation of the building.
We have also been sampling deposits on the west side of Structure B, which we know to be rich in charred plant remains, charcoal and magnetic residues from preliminary analysis of samples from 2017. With a more extensive area of this deposit exposed, we intend to do a more detailed soil chemical analysis with the samples from this season. This could give us some insight into what sort of activities were undertaken on this surface in the Iron Age.

Whetstone unearthed at Swartigill 2019Artefacts were thin on the ground in the first week of the dig, as we focussed on removing alluvial soils and rubble deposits. This past week, the artefacts have started to appear, with a spread of pottery near the hearth in Structure B and a brace of quern stones to add to those recovered from previous years. We have also recovered two hone stones or whetstones. Unlike the previous example of this artefact discovered on the site back in 2017, which looked distinctly Viking in shape, the two found from this season appear distinctly prehistoric in form.

We have been helped out by school children from Lybster, Dunbeath, Thrumster and Watten primary schools, who have been doing sterling work on site to help uncover Structure C on the south side of the dig. This is an area we have only partially exposed in previous seasons, so we are delighted to have to have had the children lend a hand in exploring this building.

We bade farewell to the majority of our stalwart student volunteers on Thursday, they have worked extremely hard and, we hope, have learned a lot about archaeological excavation and the North of Scotland Iron Age. Thanks to Leia Tilley from the University of Durham, Kenny McElroy from the University of Glasgow, Iona Cargill from Oxford University, Sierra Renna from Willamette College in the USA and Calum Hall and Mary Renshaw from the University of the Highlands and Islands. We hope to see you all again next year!

Thanks also to all the volunteers and visitors who have contributed their time and efforts to the dig so far. If you haven’t seen the site yet or still want to come and take part, there is still plenty of time!

We will be working on site every day until Sunday the 8th of September, though Saturday the 7th will be out last full day of digging as we need to spend some time on Sunday putting the covers back over the site and making sure its secure for the winter. Come along to see our progress any time this week, and even join in the excavation! No previous experience is required.