A glorious welcome to the Orkney Islands; awaiting the ferry to cross to Rousay with that tantalising view of the south coast with its three chambered cairns dotted along the dark green line visible on this stretch. Off to the left lies Swandro bay with its several millennia of occupation, from Neolithic to Viking.
In true Orcadian fashion, by the next day (my first on site) it was wet, windy and quite cold so I shifted from sandals (not that you'd wear these on site anyway) and tee-shirt to four layers and a waterproof... But the archaeology is worth it! Looking up at the site from the water's edge you can see the result of thousands of years of occupation and the myriad of rebuilds awaiting un-picking.
My starting point this year was getting down to this flagged flooring in one of our Pictish buildings. Even in this one room there are at least three phases of walling and in the process of excavating I found a rather odd object, the purpose of which we are not quite sure of, made either of antler or an intimate part of a male walrus...
Follow the story on the Swandro Dig Diary; and on Twitter @SwandroOrkney and @WessexArch.
by Jackie McKinley