Day 5 and 6 – Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st

As the last post has suggested - after three trenches (7,8 & 9) being opened most of the team got stuck into trowelling the first one (7) and found potential stony structures. The stones were forming certain shapes that indicated that the structures found were manmade – whereas the rest of the stones are probably rubble that has fallen from the structure. Throughout the day It has been tentatively suggested that these structures are prehistoric cairns. For those who do not know what cairns are – they are funerary/burial monument built with loose stones from the Neolithic (c. 4000 BC) to Bronze Age (600 BC) periods. 

You often find that sacred areas are reused over many centuries or millennia – so it would make sense that the Kildonnan site held a special place when Christianity arrived and when the new religion was transferred on top of the pagan practices. 

The team that worked on Trench 7 were clearing/defining the stones so that we could plan (draw) this layer to scale. Once this has been recorded for prosperity we can remove these stones and see what may be underneath (if anything). 

At the end of the day the trench was ready for me to plan out (which I love to do… a bit too much). As the trench is over 3 metres by 10 metres it took most of Thursday to complete it but luckily the sunshine held out and I happily draw to my hearts content – with the odd visit from our neighbour, Diesel the dog (who has become our team mascot as he likes to dig randomly on the site with us).

(Photo: Diesel and Helen)