Buildings and Drain, Whithorn

View of the lower part of the site at Whithorn, showing the waterlogged area which preserved organic deposits and leather. The 12th century drain cutting through the site can clearly be seen, and the big slabs centre left are the bridge over the earlier Northumbrian drain - clearly the flooding of the site was an ongoing problem for several centuries.   In the background a reconstruction of one of the houses from the Viking town is being built. Traces of nearly eighty such buildings were found during the excavations, the first Viking town ever to be excavated on the Scottish mainland.