Magnetometry

Date June 2003 - July 2003

Event ID 695973

Category Recording

Type Magnetometry

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/695973

HY21NW 54 centred on 2349 1891

The following areas were surveyed in June and July 2003 as part of the Birsay-Skaill Landscape Project.

HY 236 196 to HY 230 187 Bay of Skaill. Survey was concentrated in two areas: the mound on the N side of the bay known as the 'Castle of Snusgar' which was the site of the 1858 Viking silver hoard; and the immediate environs of Skara Brae within the World Heritage Site area to the S. The Snusgar survey started with 3D electronic topographical modelling - a flat platform on the NW of the mound was mapped, almost certainly the site where a stone building once stood (visible until the 18th century). Magnetometry confirmed that this prominent rise in the landscape is a major settlement mound with probable medieval, Norse and Neolithic components.

Survey around Skara Brae itself was relatively limited, but showed that an 'igneous dike' passes almost underneath the settlement, and that there are further archaeological features including linears and discrete anomalies both around Skara Brae and the large settlement mound to the W (HY21NW 30), which is currently suffering severe cliff face erosion. Two 30 x 30m magnetometry grids close to Skara Brae allowed a repeat of part of a 1973 geophysical survey, and this cast informative new light on the earlier data.

Report to be lodged with Orkney SMR and the NMRS.

Sponsors: Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Heritage, University of Oxford.

D Griffiths 2003