We’re back in Sanday this week, with excavations resuming at a prehistoric site at Spurness today, Sunday.
A team from the UHI Archaeology Institute returned last year to investigate a suspected Bronze Age double house. But it wasn’t long before it became clear we actually had a substantial Early Neolithic structure – one that underwent at least three major modifications in its long life.
The Northern Exposure project began in 2018 with the excavation of this structure in Spurness, at the south-western end of Sanday. The dig revealed what appeared to be “double house” Bronze Age architecture.
Excavation in 2025, however, revealed different.
It now bears the hallmarks of an Early Neolithic structure, one that started out as a long, sub-rectangular building, orientated east to west, with an interior divided by a series of paired orthostats – a feature found not only in early dwellings but within the stalled cairns, such as Unstan, Midhowe and Tresness.
At some point this building was reduced in size and a new western end wall constructed. Against this was an end chamber, divided in two by central orthostats and separated from the rest of the interior by a row of kerbstones running south-north. This feature, which brings to mind the so-called “dressers” in Late Neolithic structures, is reminiscent of end chambers in early Neolithic dwellings and the stalled, Orkney-Cromarty type “tombs”.
The third phase of activity possibly does date to the Bronze Age and relates to a structure added to the eastern end of the Neolithic building with a curving passageway leading into it. So far, only elements of this later structure have been revealed, so its form, and exactly how it relates to the earlier building, remains unclear for now.
The excavation site overlooks the Bay of Stove, where the remains of a huge Neolithic settlement were discovered 1980. In 1992, a survey and test excavation confirmed structural remains, pottery, ash and bone dumps eroding from the cliff face and a second area of occupation approximately 80 metres from the first.
There are no secure dates for the Stove settlements but a beautiful macehead found near the cliff site in 1934 is thought to date from the latter half of the third millennium cal BC.
Considering all the Spurness finds as a whole, they point to an exceptional and important archaeological site.
The goal for 2026 is to excavate the lower courses of the Early Bronze Age and the suspected Early Neolithic house structures, as well as in-situ occupation deposits.
Watch this space for updates!
The Spurness dig runs from Sunday, July 19, to Friday, August 14, 2026. As usual, visitors are welcome during working hours, with tours available.
