The Dig Site
A large Mining experience reward and the prerequisite for Bone Voyage.
Before you start
Intermediate · medium · 2 quest points3 things to clear first, and it needs membership. Work through the list below before you travel.
About this quest
The Varrock Museum runs an excavation east of the city, and getting permission to dig there means passing three exams. The quest is long, fiddly and involves a great deal of walking between the Exam Centre, the museum and the dig itself.
It has a reputation for being confusing, largely because of one scripted moment: you fail the first exam no matter what you answer, which reads as a bug rather than as the story.
It is worth doing because of what sits behind it — Bone Voyage and Fossil Island, and a large Mining experience reward that arrives at a level where Mining is still slow.
Why do it: 15,300 Mining experience, and it is the requirement for Bone Voyage and therefore for all of Fossil Island.
Walkthrough
01Failing the first exam
The Dig Site is built around three exams, and you are meant to fail the first one. The quest is the process of collecting the answers.
- 1
Go to the Exam Centre south of the Digsite and ask an Examiner about taking an exam. She hands you an unstamped letter.
- 2
Take the letter to Curator Haig Halen at the Varrock Museum for his seal. Pick up a cup of tea from the Varrock stall while you are there — you need one shortly.
- Cup of tea
- 3
Return and sit the exam. Every answer is wrong, so answer anything. The Examiner then points you at the students.
02Three students, three lost things
Each student trades an exam answer for something they have lost. Collecting all three before you speak to any of them saves a lap of the site.
- 1
Head north of the Exam Centre to the wooden walkways. Follow the eastern one uphill and search the easternmost bush by the large blue urn for the teddy bear.
- 2
In the tent at the end of the walkway, take the panning tray from the table. Give the cup of tea to the panning guide and he will let you use the river.
- 3
Pan at the river points until you get the special cup. Keep any uncut opal that turns up — it is needed later in the quest.
Do not sell or drop the opal. Getting another means panning again.
- 4
Steal from the workmen around the site until you get the animal skull. Keep the specimen brush if one appears, for the same reason as the opal.
- 5
Return each item to its owner: the skull to the blonde student in green north of the tent, the cup to the student in orange further north-east, and the bear to the student in purple to the north-west. Talk to each of them twice.
If an answer is missing from the exam later, it is because one of these conversations did not finish. The quest journal names the student.
03The remaining exams
- 1
Sit the exams again with the students' answers. There are three levels and each unlocks more of the site.
- 2
With all three certificates you can dig where the quest needs you to. Follow the journal from here — the remaining steps are collection and delivery rather than navigation.
What to do next
Bone Voyage is the direct continuation, but it needs 100 kudos in the Varrock Museum on top of this quest. Start collecting those now if Fossil Island is the goal.
The Digsite itself becomes a reasonable Mining spot, and the museum's natural history quiz is a quick source of the kudos you will need.
Rewards
Experience
17,300 total
MiningEverything else
- 15,300 Mining experience
- Access to the Digsite and Fossil Island route
Quests that need this one
Completing The Dig Site is a prerequisite for the following.
Desert Treasure I
Unlocks the Ancient Magicks spellbook, including Ice Barrage — the most important Magic unlock in the game.
Bone Voyage
Opens Fossil Island, home to the fastest Woodcutting and the birdhouse Hunter method.
Another Slice of H.A.M.
Rewards 1 quest point, 3,000 Prayer experience and The ancient mace.