Hopes of uncovering Viking boat burials dashed

An aerial image of a previous dig at Lephin where evidence of a thriving Norse farmstead has been found

Hopes of uncovering a rare Viking boat burial at a site on the Isle of Mull have been dashed.

Two mounds were examined as part of wider work at Lephin where Viking and Norse finds have been discovered previously.

Archaeologists confirmed they were geological features from the last ice age, something they had anticipated as a possible explanation for the elongated mounds.

Boat burials involved high-ranking Vikings being interred with a ship, and in Scotland the most southerly site previously found and excavated was in Ardnamurchan in the west Highlands.

The wider work led by Argyll Archaeology on behalf of Mull Museum did uncover further evidence of a thriving Norse farmstead at Lephin.

Archaeologists, working with volunteers, found that the site was occupied until the 15th or 16th Century when skilled metalworking was taking place.