The Book of Deer is a tenth century illuminated manuscript from North East Scotland. Amid the Latin text and the Celtic illuminations there can be found the oldest pieces of Gaelic writing to have survived from Early Medieval Scotland. These were written in a monastery in the area around Deer.

The Book of Deer Project is a community-based initiative which has now carried out 10 years of archaeological work searching for the lost monastery of Deer.

The star find of this year's dig was a gaming board. In the trench where the board was found there were at least three structures uncovered including the end of a building constructed of post-holes. Charcoal was recovered from one of these post-holes and it has recently been dated to 669-777AD. So exciting!

We are now desperately keen to continue our search and need to raise funds towards the costs so if you are interested in helping solve this mystery please give what you can.