Facilities and finds…
Let it be known that day three of the 2025 season of The Cairns was the day we finally got our toilets!
Shouts of excitement and joy were heard from every corner of the site when the truck carrying the Porta-cabin started appearing over the hill shortly before lunch break.
Subsequently, Kevin and Amy have been able to set up the office space that will be a big help to sort out all the paperwork and context numbers during the rest of the season. There is now a small flow of finds – pottery, bones, and stone tools – trickling into the office to be catalogued and the excavation seems to have gotten into full swing.
At the beginning of the day, the field-school students got a “toolbox-talk” on planning and recording features in horizontal view. Karen and Beth then got to map out the floor deposit in Structure O.
To the south-east, in Structure P, Holly and Lila have been removing rubble. In the process they’ve unearthed some periwinkles, various bones, and teeth, and a number of stone tools, mostly hammers.
Right above them, in the broch frontage, Amy has also found some stone tools and a variety of bones from both very big and very small animals; ranging from horse to rodent. Notably, within those bone finds were a small hoof and a skull from a grass-eating mammal. This deposit is the last path of 7th Century AD midden that was covering Structure H and has been mostly untouched since the 2012 season.
On the other side of the broch, in Structure B2, the bits of antler that where peeking out of deposits yesterday, turned out to be deposited with a deer skull. The area around the skull was excavated by Mila so the skull could be lifted and packed.
Sara has been trying to see if a curved wall is the gable end of the building, and has found some pottery, bone, and burnt bone in the process. Jan has been clearing the rubble of the possible partition in B2.
In the southern part of the structure, Grace, Craig, and Beth have been defining curved walls. Grace and Craig found some bones that they have left exposed, in situ, to let them dry and become more robust for lifting tomorrow.
They also beautifully excavated a group of shells. Beth found a possible sheep’s tooth in the crack of one of the walls.
Inside the broch, the multiple phases of hearth (643) in the south-east room have been excavated by Karen and Amanda. Karen has also been taking soil samples.
In the rest of the broch, in the west and north rooms, Thore, Graham, and Nick have been cleaning and establishing the site grid, so the subsequent excavation can be carefully controlled.
Mila Tabone,
UHI BSc Archaeological Science Student
