Banks and Boats

In my real life, I am an archaeological geophysicist based in the Archaeology Department of Orkney College.  Recently, my colleagues have been working on a Neolithic burial tomb at Banks, right on the southern tip of South Ronaldsay.  The site was found during works to level a car park so this is a rescue excavation trying to uncover as much as possible with very limited time and resources.  The excavation finishes tomorrow so today we got the chance to visit the site with the County Archaeologist.Happy Trisha in her hole Excavating one of the chambers      The extent of the siteAnother chamber 

You can find out more about the excavation by watching the daily video blogs here.

While I was at the site, I couldn’t help but stare at the sea.  It was amazing after the recent storms we’ve had.  At first I thought it looked like a good surf spot but I think in hindsight, you would get completely mashed!Waves

The sea was really hammering in against the cliffs.  I said to my friend I wished I was a good enough paddler to be out in that.  She said anyone who thought about going out in that must be mad.  Errmmmm………Hammering in from the south