The discovery and excavation of an 18th century wreck in Sanday is in the running for Current Archaeology’s 2026 Rescue Project of the Year, with voting now open to the public.
A new model, courtesy of UHI Archaeology Institute PhD student Logan O’Brien, of the Sanday Neolithic structure at the end of the 2025 dig last week.
That’s this season’s dig finished, the trench backfilled and we’re beginning to get packed up for the journeys home.
The penultimate day of excavation saw a buzz across the site as we race to get as much done before backfilling the site on Friday.
Our first pottery, an elusive wall section and a spectacular flaked stone adze!
The second and final week of this demanding, but rewarding, field season got under way today with a full complement of student diggers and volunteers on site.
We’re hosting an open day at the excavation site and the Sanday Heritage Centre on Sunday, August 10, followed by a talk in the school on Friday, August 15, at 7.30pm.
The covers are off and the archaeology continues to perplex!
The bulk of the infill at the western end of the Bronze Age structure is now gone – ready for the covers to come off tomorrow.
Full steam ahead – deturfing and cleaning continued but the southern wall has emerged.
Thwarted by Storm Floris! Although the weather saw digging cancelled, there was a chance to see some Sanday archaeology up close.
Day one of our excavation in Sanday – and it was a day of deturfing and cleaning.
A 3d model from Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark showing the Bronze Age structures in Spurness, Sanday, under excavation in 2018.
A team from the UHI Archaeology Institute is back in Sanday to continue excavating a Neolithic/Bronze Age site.
Our Tombs of the Isles project reached Sanday last week, with launch events on Wednesday and Thursday.
The recording of November’s UHI Archaeology Institute research seminar, which took place on Friday, November 26, 2021.
Orkney’s county archaeologist, Julie Gibson, features in the above video alongside an 8th-10th Century AD Pictish symbol stone found in Sanday last month.
Analysis of the whalebone and shells recovered during the excavations at Cata Sand, Sanday, Orkney, is under way at the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute.
