Racing Against Time and Tide at the Knowe of Swandro

Our current main excavation is at the Knowe of Swandro in Rousay, a 5,000-year-old Neolithic chambered tomb, Iron Age roundhouses, Pictish buildings, a Viking settlement and a Norse Long Hall, all of which is being destroyed by coastal erosion.  A complex sequence of buildings, including a massive Iron Age roundhouse, is built into the tomb mound, which must be excavated before the chambered tomb can be reached, and this is our priority for our 2025 excavation, which will run from 16th June to 8th August 2025.  Doing nothing is not an option - much of this important site has already been irrevocably destroyed by the sea and the rest will follow in the not-too-distant future.