The Ness in numbers…

We were delighted to see an increase in local visitors to the site this summer. And with these came a fairly regular comment: “I really didn’t realise how big it was!”

The scale of the Ness dig means it was, without doubt, the biggest research excavation carried out in Orkney. Something that, to be honest, we sometimes took for granted ourselves.

So, to give some idea of that scale, how about some nice statistics:

2024

• 20,987 site visitors.
• 62,010 visitors to the Orkney Museum, and our exhibition, between May and September.
• 927 visitors on the final day open to the public.
• 2,584 visitors on site open days.
• 107 carved stone ball replicas sold on site.
• 47 Meet and Greet volunteers.
• 189 site tours – private and daily.
• 6.3 miles – the average daily distance covered by Sigurd during tours/excavation on site.
• 335,303 website visits to date. The total for all of 2023 was 330,089.

All time

• 20 years of excavation.
• 24 trenches and test pits opened, which still only account for less than 10 per cent of the site.
• c.300 tonnes of earth/midden/rubble excavated.
• 10,000+ context sheets filled out. These are written record sheets, one completed for each separate layer/feature/deposit encountered during excavation.
• 6,500+ samples taken for analysis.
• 120,000+ official site photographs.
• 3,300+ scale drawings made of the excavation.
• 1,500+ volunteers and students in excavation and post excavation processes.
• 150+ professional archaeologists providing expertise over the years.
• 14 artists in residence.
• 180,000 visitors.
• 27 television programmes.
• 100+ articles, papers, books in print.
• 4,000+ tonnes of earth excavated.
• 50,000 finds bags filled.
• 150,000 sherds of pottery recovered. Over a metric tonne – the largest Grooved Ware assemblage in the world.
• 200,000+ animal bone fragments.
• 32 seashells!
• 190 polished stone artefacts.
• 1,200+ examples of Neolithic art.
• 1,200+ guided site tours.
• 1,500+ posts on the Ness website
• 2.5 million website views, from 213 different countries, since 2017!
• £410 the cost of one radiocarbon date.