South Ronaldsay dig, The Cairns project

The rain did nt put us off or the archaeologists who were busy digging away on site at Windwick. We put on our waterproofs and visited the open day of a dig off an Iron Age Broch which takes place over four weeks each year.

An amazing visit, so interesting. We were shown round the site by an archaeologist who has worked here for the last few years and was going on to dig at the Ness of Brodgar.

Further artefacts are being revealed all the time and we were able to handle some of the finds including a grinding stone and a piece of iron ore. There is a blog you can follow here

We were talking to an Italian student who is studying for his masters in Archaeology at Edinburgh Uni who had hitched a ride to the dig and needed a lift back to the Hope. We asked if he wanted to see the Tomb of the otters that we had visited the year before as I thought he would find it interesting. He did, so while he chatted to Hamish the owner and discoverer we had our lunch. Really tasty again. The view from the restaurant looks over the Pentland Firth which looked really choppy today with massive waves.

We took the Italian back to catch a bus, discussing the changeable weather. He said that in Italy there is a saying to 'peel like an onion' . Certainly needed a variety of clothes today as the sun is now shining.

We asked if he had seen the Italian Chapel, he said he had but it was' no Sistine chapel,' so he was nt impressed ! We thought it was impressive considering it's made out of two Nissan huts with limited time and resources so we found his comment quite comical :)
Might pop out later to make the most of our last day, will be sad to leave !