r/orkney • u/Slice-O-Pie • 3h ago
Students on an archaeological field trip discover Viking church on the uninhabited Orkney island of Swona.
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Students and staff from Gordonstoun, a private school in Moray which the King attended, made the discovery on an archaeological field trip to Swona, a tiny Orkney island where only feral cattle live.
The building thought to be a church bears similarities to other Viking churches from the 10th and 11th centuries.
The children worked with professional archaeologists from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (Orca) to uncover the remains during a recent six-day trip.
During the excursion they stayed in an abandoned house which had not been lived in for a century, with no electricity and fresh water pumped from an ancient well.