The first week of the trial excavation is now over, and it has been very successful. We have managed to open three trenches, and have recovered many artefacts - including worked bone and pottery! The weather has been very changeable, with bands of rain blowing in from the southwest throughout each day. Accessing the stack has been hard work because of these conditions. We have also had to rebuild our tent due to severe wind damage, which ripped the fly-sheet into shreds…

Our team now has a new member, Dr Andrew Baines.

Dr Andrew Baines

Andrew is an experienced archaeologist and specialises in the Atlantic Iron Age. He graduated from the University of Glasgow with his PhD last year.

Trench One

Our first trench was opened over the main structure on the island - the dun itself. It measures 2 x 8 m and runs from the top of the dun, down the south side and onto the plateau on which the dun sits. After removing the turf, we could see the remains of a dry stone wall, and a large amount of tumbled masonry below it. It seems likely that the tumbled masonry had fallen from the wall. The stone is all Lewisian Gneiss.


Trench 1		A piece of worked bone was found in the topsoil layer while cleaning back. This can be seen in the photo above, and may be the result of butchering on site.

After cleaning all the topsoil from the tumble, Ian started the difficult task of planning the masonry inside the trench. A planning frame is used as a guide to create an accurate scale drawing of all the features.

Photographs are also taken in colour slide and black and white to fully record all parts of the structure. Once the initial recording was completed, he began excavating the last phase of tumble that was visible. This lay as a band running roughly east-west across the middle of the trench. Underneath lay yet more tumble, which will be planned and excavated next week.

Trench Two

This trench has been positioned over a geophysical anomaly which lies to the southwest of the dun, on the lowest terrace. The anomaly can be seen in the interpreted geophysical data as a possible stone building revealed by both forms of geophysical instrument.

This was the last trench to be opened, and measures 5 x 3 m. It has only just been de-turfed and cleaned back. It seems at this stage that the structures revealed may only be natural rock outcrops, but further investigation next week will clarify this.

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