Started the day filling sandbags as the tide was far enough out that we had sand, we need plenty to support delicate orthostats and walling along with all the stone that we're going to put back in.
Initially I ordered 500, which we filled last week, but Julie thought we should use more both because we're so much deeper and also because the walling, being in so much worse a condition after the last few years erosion, needs a bit more support. No problem, the first lot we ordered came home from Glasgow via Aberdeen in just a couple of days, so reordered a thousand more last Monday. We were promised 2 day delivery as before, so thought they'd be here by Thursday at the latest but no show. Checked the tracking details and found that for reasons best known to themselves DPD had sent them to Hinckley in Leicester for onward shipping to their 'Offshore Islands Hub'. Suspect someone put them on the wrong lorry - anyway they arrived Monday after their little excursion to England, so all's well that ends well.
We managed to fill another 250 before the tide came back in, the filling's not so bad but the shifting them up the beach gets a bit wearing so the team were glad of a bit of a breather and those sandbags really are quite comfy:
I haven't broken it to them yet that since the tide gets later every day we're going to have time to do so many more tomorrow and the day after before we have an excuse to stop!
Elsewhere on site we are still digging, Keith's tank-like feature with adjacent rotary quern and anvil is looking less tank-like by the minute, and seems to be expanding in different directions. Keith's trying to convince us that it's the entrance to a souterrain but it looks a bit too small for that, we'll have to see, the answer might have to wait for next year:
We had a fair few visitors today, including our old friend and leading authority on all things Neolithic/Bronze Age, Dr Alison Sheridan, who was visiting Midhowe tomb with friends but managed to get down to visit us before having to zoom off to catch the boat:
It was great to see her again, and thank to a quick run up the hill to the main road in the site Landy, she managed to catch her boat.
Anyway better close now as it's past my bedtime and considering how many sandbags we have to fill tomorrow I'll need a good nights sleep!