Day13: 21 July 00
Today, almost for the first time on the excavation, the weather was hot and sunny; this allowed us to continue with the work that the bad weather had prevented us from finishing. Stonework became better exposed and enabled us to finish planning the walls and the rubble layers in order to compile a more complete record of the whole site. Once the planning is completed, the walls and the rubble can be removed to see what is lying underneath. Planning is a very slow exercise requiring an accurate stone-by-stone scale record of the site: this is one of the reasons why archaeological excavation is so time-consuming.
Planning the enclosure walls stone-by-stone ahead of their removal.
The fine weather also allows us to catch up with the paperwork and the records which are needed to write up the site.
Work also continued today within the chapel, with both the nave and chancel being excavated to see what features lie within them. In the nave, we are now almost down to the natural bedrock, below the level of the curvilinear building to the north. It is important to ascertain whether there is any evidence of further structures within this area. In the chancel work is progressing in order to investigate the continuation of structures which lie outside to the east and which are known to underlie the chancel floor. We hope to be able to reveal these in the next few days.
Work continuing in the nave and the chancel.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is Open Day on the site and a ferry arrangement has been set up to bring visitors across from Stronsay. Boats leave at 10.00 am, 11.30 am and 1.00 pm. All are welcome.