Alex scored star find of the day early on with this ace pivot stone, the grin says it all!
It had been supporting a massive water worn beach stone acting as a threshold to a little side cell, and was upside down underneath it, you could see that it clearly was something, possibly a quern rubber, so when Alex lifted it everyone nearby yelled 'turn it over!' - we do like the grand reveal and it's always worth having a look on the other side of any stone, you never know what might turn up.
Pivot stones are just what they sound like, they're made to let a door pivot in them, and we've has a few nice examples, some of which are in situ i.e. have been left in place where the door used to be.
The pivot stone cheered everyone up, but to be fair we had got off to a nice sunny start today, all pretty idyllic with the waves gently lapping away and everyone slapping on the sun cream and sun hats.
Our surveying team of Gavin and Michal even for once enjoyed the luxury of being able to set up the total station without worrying about the equipment fogging up:
Elsewhere the inevitable photo cleaning after removal of yet another hearth was soon in progress taking advantage of the surfaces having dried out a bit after yesterday's rain.
It was too good to last and soon the annoying drizzle started up with the mist rolling in from the sea, which is nowhere near as romantic as Paul McCartney made it sound in the Mull of Kintyre, maybe mist isn't as soggy out west or maybe he was watching it from inside by a blazing fire with a glass of whisky to hand. Anyway the rest of the day was grey and chilly with varying degrees of wetness, but at least Julie didn't have to wait for clouds to come over to take her photos:
Took a quick snap myself, there's yet another hearth underneath which will be duly sampled for archaeomagnetic dating by Dr Cathy Batt who'll be over in a couple of days.
Forecast is a bit mixed for the rest of the week so likely more of the same, sun cream to full waterproofs and back again. Hey ho.