Cool Finds

Archaeology Student Discovers Carefully Carved Stone Head at Viking Settlement in Scotland’s Orkney Islands

Found on the island of Rousay, the red sandstone artifact adds to the layered history of an archaeological site in the Scottish archipelago

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

August 5, 2025

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An intricately carved head made of red sandstone has been found on one of Scotland’s Orkney islands. Featuring a broken nose, closed eyes and wavy hair, the artifact was unearthed during a dig at the site of a 12th-century Viking chieftain’s settlement.

The site, known as Skaill Farm, is located on the island of Rousay, and researchers have been excavating it for a decade. Recently, Katie Joss, an archaeology student at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Inverness, was digging into the foundations of one of its large stone walls.

“We were removing a slab when the head came rolling out at us, and as we turned it around we saw a face looking back at us,” Joss tells BBC News’ Rob Flett. “It was really exciting.”

Skaill Farm had been active in the 18th and 19th centuries, but researchers from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute think its history stretches back to the Viking era.

Skaill Farm’s name comes from the Old Norse word “skáli,” which means “hall.” The farm is located in Westness, the southwestern region of Rousay, which is thought to have been home to the Viking clan leader Sigurd of Westness in the 12th century.

Six years ago, researchers from the institute found the remains of a Norse drinking hall at the site. Featuring three-foot-wide stone walls and stone benches, the building was likely a “high-status site,” per a 2019 statement from the institute.

“You never know, but perhaps Earl Sigurd himself sat on one of the stone benches inside the hall and drank a flagon of ale!” said excavation co-director Dan Lee, an archaeologist at the institute, in the statement.

The recently discovered artifact will help researchers learn even more about the site. Excavation co-director Sarah Jane Gibbon, an archaeologist at the institute, tells BBC News that she was surprised by the intricacy of the carving’s hair and serene face.

“It’s really unusual; we’ve found nothing like this here at Skaill before,” she says. “We don’t know how the head ended up in the backfill of this building.”

Gibbon thinks the material was probably quarried from Eday, another Orkney island, according to a statement from the institute. The head also resembles stone fragments from the nearby St. Mary’s Church. Gibbon tells BBC News that the mysterious artifact is similar to another carved head in the 12th-century St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, the largest town in Orkney.

“Sigurd was pals with Earl Rognvald, who built St. Magnus Cathedral,” Lee tells BBC News. “We think we are standing on the hall that Sigurd built and lived in, which then became a late medieval farmstead. … We think this was a real seat of power in that period.”

Orkney has a rich history dating back much longer than the Vikings. Rousay has been called the “Egypt of the North” for its wealth of archaeological discoveries from different eras. In 1999, four historic sites on the archipelago dating back some 5,000 years were designated as the UNESCO Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage site: Skara Brae, a neolithic village; the Ring of Brodgar, a stone circle and henge; the Stones of Stenness, a stone henge; and the Maeshowe Chambered Cairn, a chambered tomb.

During this year’s excavations at Skaill, researchers also discovered a stone that may have been engraved with the words “Memento mori” (Latin for “Remember death”). The newly discovered head will be cleaned before eventually going on public display.

“For now, the Skaill head must remain a fascinating enigma in terms of date, origin and use,” Gibbon says in the statement. “But its discovery, along with many other fine pieces of carved red sandstone, as well as those built into the nearby old parish church of St. Mary, strongly suggests a building of some splendor once stood in the vicinity.”

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.