Adventures in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site

This summer has been a busy season for The Discovery Programme staff, with members of the team heading out on projects across Europe and beyond. This week’s blog covers the journey of Eimear Meegan (FAR Project Lead) and Hannah Genders Boyd (Outreach and Communications Officer) to Orkney, Scotland.

In early August we travelled to Orkney to meet with staff members from the University of Highlands and Islands, Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, the Ness of Brodgar Trust and Historic Environment Scotland. Our trip included site visits to some of the Neolithic monuments in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, including the Ness of Brodgar during its final season of excavation.

The purpose of the trip was to learn more about research projects in Orkney and build relationships with Scottish colleagues, particularly those working within the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, which covers an area on the Orkney Mainland densely populated with Neolithic sites and monuments.

The Frameworks for Archaeological Research (FAR) project has intersecting strands with Orkney, as the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF) was a trailblazing project which still helps to guide research here – both within Orkney’s World Heritage Site and the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI). Eimear was interested to find out more about how overlapping research frameworks affect archaeological work (both research and commercial) across Orkney.

Hannah was keen to learn more about the outreach and education work lined up for the Ness of Brodgar following the end of excavation and the start of the extensive post-excavation phase of work. The Archaeology Institute at UHI has a strong track record of centring communities in research projects, so there is plenty of best practice learning to be gathered from their activities.

The Ring of Brodgar in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site.

Unfortunately – to quote Scotland’s famous poet – “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley” and travel disruption meant that we arrived in Orkney later than anticipated, following a mad dash up Scotland’s east coast for the next ferry. Despite this initial setback, we made the most of our first few hours on Mainland Orkney with a visit to Cuween Cairn, also known as the Tomb of the Dogs due to the discovery there of skeletal remains representing 24 dogs, which had been laid to rest alongside earlier human burials. The tomb is managed by Historic Environment Scotland, who reconstructed one of the dog’s heads by applying forensic facial reconstruction techniques to one of the canine skulls recovered during the excavation of the cairn in 1901.

Eimear examining one of the recesses in Cuween cairn.

The following day we headed over to the Ness of Brodgar, to see the site in its penultimate week of excavation. We were welcomed to site by the Ness of Brodgar Trust team – Nick Card (Site Director), Anne Mitchell (Finds Supervisor) and Prof Mark Edmonds, who treated us to a tour of this fascinating and unique site. As well as giving us the chance to see the extent and quality of the buildings that have emerged here, the site tour allowed an in-depth conversation regarding the process of archaeological research within a World Heritage Site, future engagement opportunities at the site, funding, and some of the parallel challenges between the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site and the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site here in Ireland.

Archaeologists hard at work at the Ness of Brodgar.

Our next stop was Unstan Chambered Cairn, but first we visited the Maeshowe Visitors Centre to see the earth builder Becky Little’s Earthbound Orkney exhibition. Her pieces used clay sediments found across Orkney and are based on clay balls found at the Ness of Brodgar. This beautiful, emotive and informative exhibition is one of the many ways the boundaries between art and archaeology have been transcended through the Ness of Brodgar research project and others across the Orkney islands.

Some of Becky Little's creations for Earthbound Orkney.

Unstan Chambered Cairn, from which Unstan Ware pottery gets its name, is one of the many incredible Neolithic monuments found within the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. The next on our list was the Ring of Brodgar, where an intense downpour didn’t dampen our spirits too much. This monumental stone circle comprises monoliths taken from across the Orkney Islands, perhaps echoing the gathering place that the Ness of Brodgar may represent.

The following day included a visit to County Archaeologist Paul Sharman, to hear more about how the World Heritage Site can be managed, and how research across the Orkney Islands is guided by existing research frameworks. Our final appointment was with the HES-managed Wideford Cairn, yet another of the impressive Neolithic monuments scattered across the Orcadian landscape.

The beautiful stepped structure of Wideford Cairn.

Though a flying visit, our time in Orkney offered us the opportunity to touch base with some inspiring projects and colleagues across the water. Further meetings with UHI and HES staff are planned to take these initial discussions forward and allow further collaboration and cross-pollination with Irish research frameworks development.