The Balladoole Excavations
The Viking ship burial which dates from around 850 AD to 950 AD was first excavated in 1945 by Gerhard Bersu, a German Refugee working alongside a team of internees from the Island’s internment camps. Bersu noted in his Balladoole excavation field notes that a policeman arrived to the site with news that the war in Europe was over. We cannot imagine the impact of such news for the internees at this time.
Bersu’s team was originally looking for an Iron Age Hill Fort and stumbled upon the Viking burial by accident. It was later re-excavated by Basil Megaw in 1951 and again by JR Bruce in 1974.