‘Can I help you?’

The archaeologist is younger than me; short and fair-haired and frowning, her waterproof trousers and boots caked in old and new mud.

‘I’m sorry. I’m Maggie. I’m staying up the road, and I was just curious to see what you were doing here.’

‘It’s okay,’ another young woman says, moving round the nearest trench. She’s wearing jeans and a bulky anorak, her dark hair piled on top of her head in an untidy bun, a streak of grey mud smeared from right ear to chin.

‘I didn’t mean to interrupt,’ I say. ‘I’ll go if I’m—’

‘Really, it’s fine.’ She smiles, holds out her hand. ‘I’m Dr Kumiko Okitsu. Miko.’

As I shake it, the other woman gives me one last unfriendly glare before turning on her heel.

‘I’m sorry,’ Miko says. ‘There’s been a lot of … interest in what we’re doing. It’s slowed progress down a bit.’

‘She means interference,’ someone says in a familiar South London accent, and I turn to see a smiling young man with a shaved head and goatee.

‘I mean interest,’ Miko says, frowning at him. I look at the trench behind her and recognise Jaz crouched next to the JCB, deep in conversation with two archaeologists. ‘There’s nothing wrong with locals—’

‘Checking up on us?’ the man says.

‘Jaz was on the first dig,’ I say.

‘Oh, he might have mentioned that,’ he says, with a roll of his eyes. ‘And what equipment we should be using, where we should be digging, how we should interpret—’

‘All right,’ Miko says. ‘It’s still better than the alternative.’

When Jaz looks over, I wave at him. He doesn’t wave back.

‘Femi Tinubu,’ the man says, reaching out to shake my hand. He flashes his teeth, gives me a quick up-and-down glance that feels perfunctory enough that I’m only mildly insulted.

‘Maggie Anderson. I’m staying over at Ardcraig.’ I shrug. ‘I guess I just got nosy.’

‘Would you like a quick tour?’ Miko asks.

‘Are you sure?’

She smiles. ‘I could do with the break. Come. This way.’

The three of us walk over wet grass to the flatter, busier part of the ridge furthest from the cemetery.

‘An Cladh Dubh is one of the most important Bronze Age burial sites ever discovered in Western Europe. Tòrr Dìseart literally means “deserted mound”, but the name was probably derived from the Old Norse word Dysætr, for burial place, because they’re basically two round barrows raised over graves.’ Miko nods at three archaeologists on their haunches inside the first trench. ‘Bad weather’s been moved up to lunchtime, so make sure you bag and tag, and are ready to cover, okay?’

I follow her and Femi round the end of the trench, where the ground becomes more uneven and boggy. ‘This part of the site was never excavated on the last dig. Not after they made their big discovery inside the main mound.’

‘Discovery?’

‘Please let me tell her, Doc,’ Femi says, grinning when Miko nods. ‘So, a barrow’s just a mound of earth and stones. At their centre are cut graves or, if you’re lucky, a stone chamber, or cist, containing bones, cremations; ornaments, jewellery, that kind of thing.’