King Charles’ alma mater students uncover possible 10th-century church, live without electricity and pump water from 1,000-year-old well

In a stunning discovery, a group of boarding school students in Scotland stumbled upon what could be a 1,000-year-old Viking-era church, after finding the foundations of an altar and a step during an archaeological project on a remote island. The discovery was made on Swona, a deserted island in Orkney, during an annual service trip organised by Gordonstoun, the Scottish boarding school that counts King Charles III and his late father, Prince Philip, among its alma mater. The school runs the Swona Service Project, through which students travel to the isolated island to take part in archaeological investigations and restoration work.

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The ruins on Swona had long been known locally as a “kirk,” the Scots word for church, but there had been uncertainty over whether the structure was actually a place of worship. That changed when students and staff excavated the inside of the building's eastern wall. Gordonstoun housemaster Daniel McLean, who organises the project, said the team had surveyed the site the previous year and identified several features that appeared consistent with an early medieval church.


These included the building's size, its length-to-width ratio, its east-west orientation, the position of the doorway and the construction methods.

“Everything about the structure [fit],” McLean told Fox News Digital. “The size of it, the length, the width ratio, the east-west orientation, the location of the door, the construction methods — it all [fit] for it to be an early medieval church.” When the students returned, McLean suggested digging near the eastern wall, where an altar might have stood.

“I thought if there’s anything churchy here, we may find the remains of where the altar was on the inside of the east wall,” he said. The excavation soon revealed the foundations of an altar and a step directly in front of it, providing new evidence for the long-standing belief that the ruins were once a church.

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Church may date back to the 10th or 11th century

Based on similarities with other churches from the region, the structure is believed to date to the 10th or 11th century, placing it within the Viking era. For the students involved, the discovery offered a rare opportunity to see archaeological evidence of medieval life up close.

Student Archie Maclean, who helped dig the original test pit and later cleaned the altar and doorway for photographs, said seeing the altar in person made the history feel tangible. “When you see the altar in person, you go, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s still an altar after all of this time,’” he told Fox News Digital.

He was also surprised by how clearly parts of the building had survived despite centuries of exposure to the elements. “Same with the doorway as well, the structure of the building is still so visible, even after years of earth and wind and weather eroding the outside,” he said.

Students spent a week on an island with no electricity

The archaeological discovery was only part of the students' work on Swona. The 10 students travelled for around 10 hours by bus, ferry and boat to reach the remote island, which lies roughly seven miles north of John o' Groats. The students have a special arrangement with the island's owners, the Annal family, and the Swona Heritage Group, allowing them to participate in conservation and archaeological projects.

They also helped restore an old house used during their stay. Student Alfie Pullin said the team worked on replacing a wooden living-room floor that had rotted because of drainage problems. The house had no electricity, while the students pumped fresh water from a 1,000-year-old well.

Pullin described spending a week on the isolated island as “very surreal,” particularly because the students arrived with a task but did not know what they might discover. The school plans to return to Swona next year to continue investigating its archaeological sites.

The team also intends to use GPS data and digital images collected during the project to create a 3D model of the possible church. Further archaeological analysis could help establish the structure's precise age.

McLean said discoveries on remote islands such as Swona can reveal how communities lived in the past and potentially offer clues about the spread of Christianity.

“Even in places that seem like the middle of nowhere, you can find these parts of history that can re-contextualize a whole village there, or even up to the way that Christianity was spread in this example,” he said.