In August 2024, after twenty-one seasons, archaeologists finished recording the Ness of Brodgar, laid protective membrane over the walls and buried the whole site under the spoil they had removed from it. The dig that rewrote Neolithic Orkney is now a green field again, and that was always the plan.
What They Found
The Ness sits on a narrow strip of land between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar, with lochs on either side. It was picked up by geophysical survey in 2002 after a plough struck a notched stone slab, and excavation ran from 2003 to 2024.
What came out of the ground was not what anyone expected: a complex of large, well-built stone structures enclosed by a substantial wall, in use for something like a thousand years from roughly 3300 BC. The buildings are monumental rather than domestic, with thick walls, standing stones incorporated into them, paved passages and, in one case, a building over twenty metres long. The excavators nicknamed it a Neolithic cathedral, with the caveat that nobody knows what it was for.
- Decorated stone in quantity. Hundreds of pieces carry incised geometric designs, making this one of the largest bodies of Neolithic art in Britain.
- Coloured pigment on some stones, including traces of red and yellow, indicating painted interiors, which is rare evidence for the period.
- Roofed in stone slate, on the evidence of the tile-like stones recovered, which changed assumptions about how such buildings looked.
- Grooved Ware pottery in bulk. The style appears to originate in Orkney and then spread south across Britain, including to Durrington Walls beside Stonehenge, which puts Orkney at the leading edge of Neolithic culture rather than at its periphery.
- A closing feast. At the end of the site’s life, around 2400 BC, one structure was surrounded by the remains of several hundred cattle, most plausibly a single enormous slaughter marking a deliberate act of closure.
Why It Was Buried Again
This is the part visitors find hardest to accept, and it is good practice. An open trench in Orkney takes a beating from wind, rain and frost, and stabilising and presenting the Ness for public display would have cost many millions and required permanent covered structures on a World Heritage landscape. Reburial protects the walls in stable, damp, oxygen-poor conditions, which is the environment they survived in for five thousand years.
It also leaves the site for future archaeologists with better methods. Roughly ten per cent of the Ness has been excavated. The rest is still there, deliberately untouched.
What You Can See Now
Set expectations before you drive out: there is no open excavation to look at. What you get is:
- The site itself, a grassed mound between the two stone circles, with interpretation boards explaining what lies beneath.
- A ten-minute walk to the Stones of Stenness in one direction and the Ring of Brodgar in the other, which is the real reason to come. Standing on the Ness between them, you understand the geography that made this isthmus matter.
- Finds on display at the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall.
- The project’s published archive and site diaries, which remain online.
It forms part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you still visit the Ness of Brodgar dig?
Not as an excavation. The final season ran in 2024 and the trenches were covered with protective membrane and backfilled. The site is now a grassed mound with interpretation boards, sitting between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.
Why did they bury the Ness of Brodgar again?
Reburial protects the stonework in the stable, damp, low-oxygen conditions that preserved it for 5,000 years. Presenting it permanently would have required costly covered structures on a World Heritage landscape, and only about ten per cent has been dug, leaving the rest for future methods.
What was the Ness of Brodgar?
A walled complex of large, well-built stone buildings in use for roughly a thousand years from about 3300 BC. The structures are monumental rather than domestic, with decorated and painted stone and stone-slate roofing, and their purpose is genuinely unknown.
What is the significance of Grooved Ware from Orkney?
Grooved Ware pottery appears to originate in Orkney and then spread south across Britain, reaching sites including Durrington Walls beside Stonehenge. That places Orkney at the leading edge of Neolithic culture rather than on its margins.
Sources & Further Reading
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Heart of Neolithic Orkney
- The Ness of Brodgar Trust — excavation archive and site diaries
