2001 was the seventh season of the Old Scatness Broch project, and the year in which the site was nominated as a finalist for the Scottish Thistle Cultural Tourism Awards.

The project combines the excavation of an Iron Age Broch and Village, with extensive survey in the surrounding area.

Our key aims are:
1. To date the broch and the buildings using state of the art scientific methods.
2. To examine the economy of the site: how did people live, what did they eat and what did they trade?
3. To explore the hinterland in order to put the broch and village into their wider setting.
4. To develop the site as one of Shetland's premier heritage sites.

This season we uncovered the northside of the broch, where the road built in 1975, revealed it. The chippings left from shaping the stone when the broch was built, still lay on the old ground surface.

A cereal grain found among it will give us a carbon 14 date for the building of the broch.

A prize find has been a Pictish "painted pebble". At 10cm long, it is the largest known example.

The dots on the Pictish pebbles are made with lamp black, but so far the substance bonding it to the pebble is a mystery.

This building, next to the broch, has a similar diameter to the broch itself.

The walls are far less substantial, and over time, parts of it have been rebuilt to incorporate buildings around the outside, perhaps even under the same roof.

The circular building is later than the broch and already stands about 2m high. We have not yet reached floor level. The ditch around the broch and village was originally about 4 meters deep and 7 metres wide. A section of it was excavated last year. Most of it still survives.

Between the two broch walls there were passages and cells. We have also located the staircase which began above the doorway, at first floor level.

At least one of the village buildings was still roofed with corbelled stone. It was full of soil, but included part of an animal skeleton and a whalebone weaving comb.

It has apparently been infilled deliberately from above and then the roof put back on. There was white clay on the walls - perhaps to help lighten the room, reflecting the flickering fire and lamp light.

Off site, replicas have been built based on 3 of the buildings from the village. A professional drystone craftsman has faithfully reproduced the archaeology found on site. We have then used the evidence to conjecture what the rest of the buildings may have looked like.

A Pictish house, and a wheelhouse are both complete and work on a irregular building which had a large "rayburn" or oven inside, is well underway.

In 2002 these buildings will be used to house the living history demonstrators, who will be working stone, spindle spinning and brewing "ancient beer", amongst other Iron Age/Viking crafts.

Plans for 2002

Site guides and the living history team will be your hosts, and there will be special events at the weekend including:

Shetland Amenity Trust co-ordinate and manage the project.

The excavation team are based in the Department of Archaeological Science, University of Bradford. The Survey team and the Visitor Services are based at Shetland Amenity Trust.

We would like to thank our sponsors; BP Exploration Operating Company, European Union (European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund), Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Shetland Amenity Trust, Shetland Enterprise Company, Shetland Islands Council, University of Bradford.