The second week into the excavation has gone extremely well, with fast progress and excellent discoveries and results. Our interpretations of the site have changed considerably throughout the week.
The weather has been relatively calm all week. The wind picked up a bit mid-week, but brought no rain with it. We seem to have avoided the showers that the rest of Scotland experienced at the end of the week !

Access to the site is as exciting as ever. Our journey to work never becomes routine…

Access to the site is as exciting as ever. Our journey to work never becomes routine…

Trench 1

The most exciting discovery so far has been made by Ian in trench 1 over the Dun.
After removing a significant amount of the tumble which was discovered last week, Ian found that the wall built at the top of the dun, which we thought represented a later structure, was in fact the main structure of the dun itself! It appears that some sort of castle or tower is well preserved beneath all the tumble.

As can be seen from the above photographs, the dry stone wall is beautifully made and Ian has excavated just over 1 m of it, without coming near to the bottom building stones or foundations. Unfortunately due to time restraints and health and safety factors, we will be unable to uncover any more of the wall during this season of work.

There appears to be at least two phases of tumble overlying the building, the above photo shows Ian pointing out where there is an obvious divide between two different layers.

The building measures approximately 8 m by 5 m externally. It probably stands to a height of at least 3 m now, and the amount of collapse and tumble covering it suggests that the original height would have been at least twice this. The inside is also filled with tumble, and it looks like later occupation has altered the internal arrangement slightly, as we have still to discover the internal wall face. It appears that this may have been robbed out in part by the construction of the modern cairn which adorns the summit of the dun.

It is too early at this stage to speculate on the exact date for the construction of this building, as we have not excavated to an occupation level either inside or outside the structure. However, if we imagine that it was in use at the same time as the other buildings we are investigating, it would be around the later medieval period. We know this because we have found pottery possibly dating to this period from trenches 3 and 4.

Trench Two

As I mentioned in the last update, it seemed that trench 2 had been opened over bedrock. This unfortunately was the case. The geophysical anomalies which may have been structures, were in fact bedrock outcrops coincidentally forming an artificial structure not unlike three walls of a house…
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