Mystery over cemetery find at NoSWA site
By Ian Johnston
(From The Orcadian dated April 4, 2002)

The access track cut by NoSWA through what it believed to be a medieval graveyard at Cairston, outside Stromness. (Picture: Orkney Photographic)

Local workmen have uncovered part of what is believed to be a medieval cemetery in Stromness.

Workmen for the North of Scotland Water Authority (NoSWA – now Scottish Water) were digging an L-shaped access road at the Bu of Cairston in Stromness last Wednesday when they discovered part of what seems to be a large graveyard.

The site contains around 30 skeleton remains, a lot of which were cut up during the creation of the access road.

NoSWA employees were digging the road to work on the new waste water treatment plant, but have now created a temporary surface in order to gain access to the site. The original access road has been left for local archaeologists to study.

A NoSWA spokesman said: “We have put down a temporary surface that by-passes the site of interest and provides access to the work site.”

He added: “Right now we’re trying to accommodate the archaeologists on the site of interest, and they are not disturbing our work in any way.”

After stumbling across the discovery, NoSWA contacted a local archaeologist to study the site, who will now forward a report on the findings to Julie Gibson of the Orkney Archaeological Trust.

Some of the remains exposed at the Bu of Cairston. (Picture: Orkney Photographic)

The site could be from any time period between 700 AD and the 16th century, according to Ms Gibson, who described the find as “a very unexpected discovery”.

“We think we are dealing with graves in a Christian cemetery. But our problem is that we don’t know exactly when it could have started,” she said.

Possibilities of what the site could be, she explained, include a cemetery from the Castle of Cairston, which would date it back to the late part of the middle ages, or part of a chapel from the Bu Farm – indicating that the site may have originated in or around the 12th century.

She added that around 30 skeletons have been uncovered in the access track, although it is difficult to determine how many more may be in the area.

“Of course we don’t know the exact size of the whole site yet – we don’t know where it starts or ends and we don’t know where the edges are – so it is very hard right now to determine exactly how many bodies are in there,” she said.

There are plans to remove some of the skeletons from the site to study them further, although there is a lot more to be done before excavation work can begin on the site.

“There are several stages to go through yet,” Ms Gibson explained.

Ms Gibson is due to receive a report on the description of the site soon, after which a decision will be made on what to do next.

“The report will provide us with a description of the site and will not contain any analytical information. We do hope to do some excavation work in the future but no dates have been set yet,” she said.