May 30

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Another year of outdoor fun has begun. We started the year with a clean and record at Channerwick broch in late April. Winter storms caused a rather large collapse so we documented the changes. This was followed late in May with a walk to the Wards of Mucklure on the west side for a look at the unique maritime compass petroglyph followed by an examination of the sheltered Quinni Geo where a likely related Hanseatic trading booth once stood. You can read about it here. Upcoming in June will be geophysics at Uyea in Northmavine and later in the summer we will be visiting a Neolithic/Bronze Age landscape as well as take in the southern edges of the Neolithic axe factory with many other events mixed in.

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We'll see you out there!

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2025

 

It's been a very busy few weeks for our crew at Archaeology Shetland. We began around mid-May with coastal surveys in Yell with the SCAPE Trust before pausing the surveys to work together on trial excavations at Gletness in Nesting. This is a coastally eroding site with the remains of about half of a broch now on a holm offshore but with what may be remains of the village onshore. Among the discoveries was a couple of large walls and, upon investigation of a complex burnt mound, an unusual well appeared at the end of the days.

 

We then switched gears going back to coastal surveys and also lending some needed troweling to the Northern Picts Project at Mail where they were investigating another offshore holm and Late Iron Age/Pict Period structures on the landward side. This also proved a success.

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Both sites are calling out for future investigation. To get a sense of it all see below a video from Valerie Ward regarding our Gletness investigations.