At www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-35049323 we hear that a group of archaeologists walking along the coastline of Sanday, one of the Orkney islands, were on the way to visit an archaeological site when they stopped to investigate a mound uncovered by shifting sand dunes at Tresness. It seems this excursion off the route has come up trumps as further investigation has revealed some 14 houses dating back to the Bronze Age – with certain similarities with Skara Brae (Neolithic houses elsewhere in the Orkneys).
The same story is at http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/bronze-age-settleme… …. where we learn the settlement had been hidden by shifting sands and extensive dune formation at Tresness, and it is thought there is a lot more to discover under the sand. The scale and density of the settlement is described as remarkable as not only houses have been uncovered but working areas with various stone tools and implements such as mattocks and knives etc. The settlement is stranded in the intertidal zone and is testimony of rising sea levels. The problem here is that we are constantly been informed that Scotland is going up and southern England is sinking – the Orkneys are presumably attached to Scotland, if only on the sea floor. Why has Orkney been submerged but other parts of Scotland have been raised?