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.  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.