We've finally finished backfilling and the team is dispersing to the four corners of the globe - but the good news is that a lot of the enthusiastic youngsters want to come back next year. Here's a random selection of last day photos, from our tired and battered wheelbarrows:
... to our trailers being packed up for the season...
...including our finds hut, complete with a our somewhat ragged Orkney flags (note to self: buy new for next year)...
... and here's Tom for his mum (he's very, very tired but we haven't broken him, honest - look at that smile!)...
... and the last end-of-dig photo - goodbye little site, goodbye and keep safe over the winter:
And finally all of us here at Team Swandro want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who's supported us this season - we couldn't run the excavation without you and we really appreciate everyone who made the effort to visit us on site and those who made a donation in support of our work, either on site or online. Thank you also for all your messages of support!
We would like to thank the people of Rousay for making us so welcome and inviting us to barbecue and dances, and in particular we want to thank the landowners at Swandro, Russell and Kathyrn Marwick, for their help and permission to excavate the site, and Kirsty Mainland for letting us store all sorts of stuff in her shed over the winter. We would also like to thank the crew of the Eynhallow and for the Orkney Ferries staff in the Tingwall Office for putting up with us and getting our vehicles on the boat at short notice.
We're now looking forward to the 2020 season but as usual this is subject to us raising the money to pay for it - so we hope to see you in 2020 but if anyone wants to make a donation that would be very welcome. See you there!