The Cairns dig diary – day two
The covers are off and the broch interior revealed…
Category: The Cairns
The Cairns dig diary – day one
We’re back! We have been largely absent from site for far too long, but this year we are finally returning in strength!
Excavation at The Cairns gets this summer’s dig season under way
Our 2023 dig season kicks off today, with a full team returning to The Cairns Iron Age site.
Seminar: new thoughts on Iron Age stalled buildings of northern Scotland
The first UHI Archaeology Institute online research seminar of 2023 takes place next week and will see Martin Carruthers and Scott Timpany casting a fresh eye on Iron Age stalled buildings.
Link: Recreating Iron Age repairs – rivets and The Cairns bowl
A splendid blog post from experimental archaeologist and woodworker Viv Walker on her investigation into how The Cairns bowl was repaired in antiquity.
Video – the history and archaeology of North Atlantic whales
The recording of November’s monthly UHI Archaeology Institute research seminar, From the Cairns to Cata Sand: The history and archaeology of North Atlantic cetaceans, featuring Dr Vicki Szabo, from Western Carolina University, and our very own Dr Jen Harland.
Back at The Cairns in 2023
Excavation at The Cairns Iron Age site will resume on Monday, June 12, 2023, running until Friday, July 7.
Join Holly for an evening of shells…
The role of shellfish in the Iron Age will be among the subjects covered in a Stromness Museum talk by PhD candidate Holly Young next Thursday.
Carving The Cairns bowl – an evening of talks at Stromness Museum
The wooden bowl recovered at The Cairns excavation in 2018 will be centre of attention at an evening of talks in the Stromness Museum next Friday.
Isotope analysis reveals an atypical Iron Age diet for The Cairn’s ‘elder’
Analysis of a woman’s jawbone deposited outside an Iron Age broch around AD200 has shown that seafood was major part of her diet throughout her life.
Catch up with The Cairns – tours of excavation site on offer next week
We had to significantly reduce the scale of excavation at The Cairns this year but before the covers go back on we’re inviting the public to come along for a tour and an update on the work undertaken this year.
Excavation at The Cairns cancelled
We’re sorry to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances this summer’s excavation at The Cairns has been cancelled.
‘People of the Broch’ – OAS talk by Cairns dig director
The recording of Martin Carruthers’s talk – People of the Broch: Excavating an Iron Age Community at The Cairns – to the Orkney Archaeology Society on Thursday, May 26.
Cairns excavation takes pride of place at Stromness Museum summer exhibition
Our ongoing excavation at The Cairns is the subject of this year’s summer exhibition at the Stromness Museum.
Back at The Cairns – excavation dates set for 2022
Excavation will resume at The Cairns this summer – from June 13 until July 8, 2022.
Catch up with The Cairns in Glasgow University’s free online seminar
Archaeology Institute excavations at The Cairns, in South Ronaldsay, will be among the topics covered by the University of Glasgow’s new season of free online seminars.
Institute’s Brochtoberfest talks available to watch online
The four University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute talks featured in the fifth annual Orkney Archaeology Society Brochtoberfest are now available to view online.
Two projects resume excavation this summer
All University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute excavations were cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. This summer, as lockdown measures ease, archaeologists are looking forward to getting back to some fieldwork.