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Excavation
Date 1978
Event ID 605883
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/605883
Stone structures noticed protruding from the slopes of Virdins Hill in 1973 (P Ashmore). Survey and trial excavations took place in 1978 (Cracknell & Smith). The excavations revealed a stone house and showed that it was oval, 13m x 10m, with an interior about 7m in diameter. In the first occupation phase the entrance was on the SE side. During the second phase this entrance was replaced with one to the NE and the interior was partitioned. The roof was supported on wooden posts. After the building was abandoned it was covered with peat-ash which was subsequently ploughed. There were numerous finds of steatite-tempered pottery and stone implements, which dated the site to late BA/early IA.
The second settlement, Site B, lay by the shore of the voe and consisted of two possible stone-built houses and a field system. Two trenches were dug across the structures. Although damaged in recent years it was in no further danger.
S Cracknell & B Smith (NOSAS), GAJ vol.10, 1983
