Dig diary – that’s all folks…

Thursday, July 30, 2026 (11:29 PM)

Nick clarifying the phasing of the scrappy wall. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Day 19
Thursday, July 30, 2026

So here we are with the last Ness dig diary ever…(I feel like I’ve said that before)

And we’ll begin again with the scrappy wall section between Structures Forty-Four and Forty-Five. Nick descended on it with his trowel and after some careful excavation concluded that the wall pre-dates the construction of Forty-Five. Why the builders left the surviving stretch of wall remains something of a puzzle.

Structures Forty-Four (top), Forty-Five (bottom) and the early curving wall. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Outside Forty-Four’s entrance Ben further defined the two lines of orthostats running to the south-east. There is no doubt they were carefully and deliberately placed and we clearly part of a feature that has not survived. We may take another look at the area again tomorrow.

Structure Forty-Four’s entrance feature. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Ben investigating the orthostatic rows outside the entrance. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Elsewhere in the trench much of the day was spent finishing cleaning the trench, getting the exposed archaeology ready for photographs and a 3d model from Paul Durdin. We’ll bring that to you as soon as it’s ready.

We were delighted to welcome two old friends to site today – Dr Steve Dockrill and Dr Julie Bond. Both currently working on the Swandro excavation in Rousay, Steve and Julie have a long and distinguished history of archaeological work in Orkney, and beyond, and it was great to see them at the Ness again.

From the left: Steve Dockrill, Sigurd Towrie, Julie Bond, John Gater, Jackie McKinley and Nick Card. (📷 Jan Blatchford)

Tomorrow will see the dig team finalise the reams of paperwork and tie up any loose ends before Trench W is backfilled later in the day.

And that’s it. Ness of Brodgar 2026 is now (almost) over. We had over 5,200 visitors over the four-week dig and our thanks to them – many of whom had made their way to Orkney specifically for the dig – for their interest, donations and shop purchases. Our post-excavation work continues and every penny added to the coffers really does make a difference.

The final Ness tour. Definitely this time. (📷 Paul Durdin)

Thanks also to our meet-and-greet team and the shop ladies for their time and help. We really couldn’t do this without you.

And lastly, thanks to Time Team for giving us the chance to take a look at a new element of the Ness of Brodgar’s rich history. Having Sir Tony, John, Emily, Karen, Alex and Martyn on site, and helping, once again, to raise the profile of Orkney’s archaeological heritage, has been a real treat. The funding for the 2026 dig came from Time Team‘s Patreon members and is a shining example of how a subscription can help further British archaeology.

And with that I will bid you all a final adieu…unless something stupendous emerges on the final hours of work. It’s happened before!