Holly Young and Ben Elliott of Uhi archaeology looking at John Wombell's amazing Mesolithic cowrie bead mockup at HAF2025

And that's a wrap. Day 3 at the Tarradale Barns done. Not sure if we'll be back. Possibly not for another community dig on this site anyway. Thanks to everyone who's volunteered over the last year and a bit!

Day 2 of our dig at the Tarradale Barns near Muir of Ord and lots of hard work with some heroic shifting of soil and stone. One more day to go!

Day 1 of our July dig at the Tarradale Barns near Muir of Ord. We continue over the weekend...

We are digging again at the Tarradale "Barns" near Muir of Ord for a long weekend of archaeological excavation on Fri 25th, Sat 26th and Sun 27th July. Fancy volunteering? See tarradalethroughtime.co.uk/c…

Day 2 of our midsummer weekend dig at the Tarradale Barns with lots of activity onsite. One more day to go!

Walls, walls everywhere. We're at a good place for opening up our long Midsummer weekend dig at the Tarradale Barns next Fri, Sat and Sunday. tarradalethroughtime.co.uk

Some digging back at the "Barns" again at Tarradale today with a small team

What's happening at our kiln feature at Tarradale? We've removed part of stone block in the steps and carried out a limited sondage through the floor to make sense of the sequence of use. Plenty more grain coming up in our flotting. See the latest 3D model skfb.ly/puQTq

After two winters we have sorted over 350 bags of shell midden material from our 2023 Mesolithic dig at Tarradale; about 4 tonnes worth. We extracted bone, antler, fish bones, charcoal, worked lithics, pierced shells etc. The volunteers sorted for an estimated 1500 hours in total – at Inverness, Scotland

Another week digging our feature at the Tarradale "barns". We have now removed the remaining half of the floor deposits and retained all the material for flotting. Our leading theory is now back to corn drying kiln with 2 phases of use at different floor levels. – at Muir of Ord, Scotland

Work continues on our stone lined pit/ kiln at "the barns" at Tarradale. Flotting bulk samples from the bottom of the pit revealed some charred grain, although relatively small amounts. The large nail we recovered last week is very fragmented, but is handmade and likely pre 1850 – at Muir of Ord, Scotland

Another Sunday at our stone lined pit at the Tarradale "barns". We have a discrete area of cobbling in the floor, which may have originally extended further, and a distinct fire setting. Fine sieving has revealed a small amount of burnt grain, and we found a handmade iron nail! – at Muir of Ord, Scotland

Our feature at the Tarradale "Barns" continues to perplex us. It now looks like we have set of steps leading down into the feature, which have then been blocked up. We also have early indications of a cobbled surface dipping down towards the centre of the pit. Watch this space! – at Muir of Ord, Scotland

Another week at the barns dig at Tarradale. We now considering whether this is not a kiln at all, but rather a storage pit. Perhaps a monumental tattie pit? The burning would then be later reuse. Thoughts welcome! – at Milton, Scotland

Back at the Tarradale Barns dig yesterday at our possible kiln site. We found a piece of vitrified sandstone suggesting some ferocious temperatures. Our current working hypothesis is lime kiln, rather than a corn dryer – at Muir of Ord, Scotland