Energy / Archaeological survey complete on wind farm compound
SURVEYORS have completed an archaeological survey of an area near Sand Water intended to be transformed into a compound for the construction of Viking Energy wind farm.
Regional archaeologist Val Turner said that rather disappointingly, no Viking, or other, artefacts had turned up in the probe.
Indications emerging from the geophysical survey had turned out to have a geological rather than human origin, she said.
Turner said that such work had to be undertaken for any large scale works like the wind farm. It involves following up the geophysical survey with carefully skinning and examining what lies beneath the surface of the ground.
“The geophysical survey showed a number of things that may or may not have been geological or man made. It is not possible to tell until you test. We were also testing a random percentage of the area,” she said.
Two archaeologists from the Edinburgh firm of Headland Archaeology will be on site for the duration of the Viking excavation, if it goes ahead.
One of the team is Magnar Dalland, who was involved in excavations at Kebister in the 1980s.
He has a “long track record” of working in the hilly and moory terrain of Shetland, said Turner, and was ideal for the job.
Turner said a report into this stage of the excavations was being drawn up and added that the archaeological works form a part of the wind farm’s planning conditions.
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