Video: Update on 2024 season at Blomuir chambered cairn now available

The recording of Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark’s Orkney Archaeology Society talk on the 2024 excavation season at the Blomuir chambered cairn is now available.

Work on the Maeshowe-type cairn in Holm began in 2023, directed by Hugo, of National Museums Scotland, and Professor Vicki Cummings, Cardiff University.

This followed some archival detective work – and geophysics – to pinpoint the location of the Neolithic structure, which was originally found in the late 19th century.

Excavation revealed traces of a substantial cairn, over 15 metres in diameter, containing a central chamber surrounded by six smaller side cells – a layout akin to that of Quanterness and Quoyness.

Although commonly referred to as tombs, very few of Orkney’s known chambered cairns were found to contain human remains – and those that did were excavated in the 19th or early 20th centuries.

The fact the Holm chamber contained 14 articulated skeletons, as well as disarticulated remains, is therefore not only exciting but extremely important.

With modern scientific techniques, including DNA analysis, these could reveal much about the life of those placed within the structure. This includes information such as their health, where they grew up and how, if at all, they were related.

The final three-week season of excavation gets under way in August 2025.