Caer Site

A Hard Day's Night. Sunlight casts an eerie glow through the murky waters of Loch Thoy, into the protective bubble of the Clan MacThoy Society's latest dig at the Caer Site. Here interns and graduate students work on artifacts wrapped in plastic to prevent exposure to sunlight and premature drying after centuries underwater. In the background, part of Castle MacThoy's Keep looms over them.

The Caer Site

The Caer Site is located just off shore in Loch Thoy. Archaeologists have made over 5,000 dives between '95-'01 taking measurements to document the context of the site which is primarily comprised of boasted a distillery.

It marked the edge of the Dunn Burrow II village.

Material recovered was primarily ceramics. Artifacts densities were great in some areas yielding as many as 3,000 drinking vessels, including one thought to be the Drinking Horn of Odin.

Divers work over an orthogonal quadratic reference grid of nylon cables which covers a portion of the Caer Site further out in the Loch.

Several large wooden beams, thought to be part of a MacThoy distillery were raised to the surface earlier this year.

These artifacts were stored in fresh water and transported to Denmark for treatment with polyethylene glycol--a preservation process which gained considerable attention during its use in the conservation of the Skuldelev Viking ships.

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Due to an unseasonable drought the water levels have dropped radically in Loch Thoy, exposing many artifacts to the air. Interns have been working over time to protect these items and remove them for further study.

Thorgrim MacThoy reviews an exposed section of the Caer Site with other researchers.

The Clan MacThoy Society is conducting extensive research near Burrow, Scotland. Burrow is a relatively young city dating back from the late 1700s.

Its previous incarnations lie about six miles away. Samples of earth reveal that Dunn Burrow has been razed to the ground and rebuilt on several occasions.

The Reader may browse a Sketch of Dunn Burrow.

The British flooding of the Thoi Valley places the Dunn Burrow Dig half in and half out of the water, endlessly complicating the task of recovery and restoration.

It is an archaeologically rich area, boasting several grave sites and the village remains partly submerged by the loch and buried in silt.

The Keep is visible when the waters are released through the flood gates about twice a year.

Negotiations are currently underway to have the dam removed and the Thoi River restored to its natural bed. Due to the popularity of sport fishing at Loch Thoi and the power supplied by the dam, it is doubtful if these talks will succeed.

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