Fourteen archaeological projects supported by OIC
Story dated: Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Members of the Orkney Islands Council's development committee have approved grants for a number of archaeological projects hoping to take place this year.

Assistance under the scheme comes from the OIC’s Reserve Fund, with £40,000 of cash available, £10,000 of which must go to projects in the islands. For the first time in recent years, the money for work in the isles exceeded that recommended for Mainland projects.

Upon the recommendation of an expert panel, members agreed to fund 14 out of the 19 applications:

• Longhowe, Tankerness – further investigation of the large mound adjacent to Minehowe, which has previously yielded evidence of Mesolithic activity.
• World Heritage Area geophysics – ongoing survey of the landscape of Orkney’s World Heritage Site.
• Ness of Brodgar excavation – further examination of a Neolithic settlement site between the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.
• Ring of Brodgar  - A joint project from Dr Colin Richards of Manchester University, together with Dr Jane Downes from Orkney College, aiming to try and clarify a date for the stone circle.
• Windwick Bay, South Ronaldsay
• Isbister chambered cairn – a reassessment of the pottery recovered from the Tomb of the Eagles.
• Submerged prehistoric landscapes – surveying the landscape around the Stenness loch, Longhope Bay and Waulkmill Bay to ascertain the extent of sea-level rise since prehistory.
• Stenaquoy/Muckquoy, Eday
• Braes of Ha’Breck, Wyre – investigating the site of the Neolithic settlement uncovered last year.
• Castle of Stackelbrae, Eday – coastal erosion excavation – substantial medieval house.
• Hodgalee, Westray – A mound on the west side of Westray. Possibly the site of an Iron Age wheelhouse.
• Hoy and South Walls landscape investigation – an ongoing project by Judith Robertson surveying and recorded potential archaeological sites in the area.
• Stronsay archaeological survey – a fieldwalking/surveying exercise.
• Burristae Broch, Westray – a salvage excavation on a site where an estimated 50 per cent has already been eroded by the sea.
• Knowe of Skea, Westray – the final season’s work on the Iron Age funerary complex - the first large-scale cemetery of the early first millennium to be found in Scotland.