Gordonstoun pupils uncover possible thousand-year-old Viking church on Swona
A team of ten Gordonstoun School students helped archaeologists locate the remains of a medieval Viking church on the remote island of Swona.
Ten students from Gordonstoun School joined a team from the Orkney Research Center for Archaeology to excavate a site on Swona, an uninhabited island off Scotland’s north coast. Their work revealed the upper portions of a medieval structure that may have served as a Viking church more than 1,000 years ago, hidden beneath a newer building. The dig was conducted on the island’s abandoned settlement, where the group stayed in a rundown house lacking electricity and running water, relying on an ancient well for water.
Daily work began around 8 a.m. and concluded near 6 p.m., with pupil Archie Maclean, 17, calling the hands-on discovery “incredible.” Vikings are thought to be the first settlers of Swona, and the island’s last residents left in 1974.
Why it matters
The find adds new insight into early Viking settlement patterns in the Orkney islands.
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