The Brough of Deerness, Orkney
17 Feb 2010
The Brough of Deerness is a medieval settlement (of over 30 visible foundations and a church) on a sea stack fringed by 20-30m cliffs in Orkney. High resolution GPS survey shows how densely packed with ruins the site is - confirming the likelihood of a substantial settlement in what is a very inhospitable location. Three houses have now been excavated along a line from the eastern to western edges of the stack. All are of Viking Age date and probably ended their use-life in the 11th-12th centuries. Intriguingly, two of the houses began as dwellings (complete with central hearths), but were remodeled and then never reoccupied as domestic spaces. The site may thus have changed in function from settlement to (predominately) unmanned refuge. New fieldwork has also demonstrated that the Viking Age houses were built on an earlier settlement dating to the 6th to 9th centuries based on 14C and artifacts (including a rare fragment of vessel glass). The site is looking increasingly like a chiefly citadel of both Pictish and Viking Age date. It may be appropriate to envision it as a ‘little Tintagel' and it must represent the milieu from which retinues could be recruited for the campaigns recorded in 10th and 11th century Irish and English sources.
The fieldwork was sponsored by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Orkney Islands Council, the Russell Trust, the Friends of St Ninian's and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
James Barrett and James Gerrard (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research) Mary Saunders (Orkney College Geophysics Unit)
House 25 under excavation in 2009 Pendant with rune-like decoration Digital model of surface earthworks
(Image: Tim Cornah) (Image: Pieta Greaves) (Image: Mary Saunders)
