Sunshine uncovers hidden history
St Kilda is owned by
the National Trust
for Scotland
BBC NEWS
Oct. 20, 2008
Archaeologists working on St Kilda have found a previously undiscovered cross-inscribed slab
because of the way the sun lit the stone.
Staff from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland found the
slab had been used as a drain cover.
It was found in Village Bay, Hirta, one of the most investigated sites owned by the National Trust
for Scotland.
Previously inhabited, only workers live on the island archipelago.
Nearby chapel
Two other cross-incised slabs have already been recorded in the area - one built into a house
built
in the 1860s and the other into the roof of one of the cleits, a drystane storage sheds.
It is thought that the three stones came from the nearby chapel or graveyard.
Strat Halliday, the archaeologist from RCAHMS who discovered the cross, said: "I was literally
just watching where I was putting my feet, and there it was, clear as daylight."