But the broader archaeological record of Iron Age Sutherland and the northwest Highlands remains partially unexplored, and the discovery at Loch Borralie is likely to prompt more careful examination of comparable sites in the region.

The COMMIOS project is ongoing, and its work is generating new data about Iron Age communities across Britain that will provide context for understanding the Loch Borralie findings more fully.

As more ancient DNA data becomes available from Iron Age sites across Scotland — from the Northern and Western Isles as well as the mainland — the genetic connections documented at Loch Borralie will be placeable within a richer network of comparative evidence.

The possibility that similar evidence exists at other sites in the region — that other cairns in Sutherland or the Northern Isles might contain remains with comparable evidence of post-mortem modification — is real, given the evidence from Loch Borralie that this kind of practice was at least occasionally performed in the Iron Age northwest Scottish communities.