The Brough of Birsay was the power-center of the Viking earldom of
Orkney and is one of Historic Environment Scotland's key monuments and
visitor attractions on the islands. This publication is the culmination
of 60 years of investigations that took place on the site between 1954
and 2014.
This new volume incorporates comprehensive accounts of work undertaken
by Dr Ralegh Radford and Mr Stewart Cruden between 1954 and 1964,
excavations by the Viking and Early Settlement Research Project under
the direction of the author on site between 1974 and 1981, a rescue
excavation in 1993, a geophysical survey in 2007 and archival research
up to 2014.
Specialist artifactual and palaeobiological studies of metallurgical
material, ogham inscriptions and a gilt-bronze mount of Insular origin
are included, together with reanalysis of the radiocarbon dates from all
sites in Birsay Bay, and a reassessment of the architecture and dating
of the church and related buildings on the Brough itself.
The final two chapters put the Brough, as both a Pictish power-center
and the hub of the Viking earldom, in the overall context of Birsay Bay
and Viking and late Norse Orkney, and the wider world between the
Pictish and late Norse/Medieval periods.
As well as being the author's third and final volume reporting on work
for the Birsay Bay Project, this volume completes a trilogy of studies
of the Brough itself, alongside Mrs Cecil Curle's and Prof John Hunter's
earlier monographs.
