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Newsletter (Edition 7 Summer 2010)
Once again, a very busy winter and spring has given us plenty to tell you in our latest installment of the six-monthly SRP newsletter. As ever, we hope that you find it an interesting read, and we welcome your ideas and suggestions for future editions.
The SRP Team, July 2010
Scotland’s Rural Past Conference, 2010
After last year’s SRP conference in Fort William, we shall be moving over to the east side of the country again for our third annual get-together. This will be held in the wonderful surroundings of Crieff Hydro in Perthshire, over the weekend of 30 and 31 October. Once again, we can promise an eventful programme which includes presentations from a wide range of SRP projects taking place across Scotland. Many other projects will also have their work on display to share with conference delegates. This year we shall be running workshops on topics ranging from how to obtain funding to how to do oral history recording, and from working with young people to drawing beautiful hachures on archaeological site plans. There will also be other stalls and events (but no unpleasant surprises), including the chance to preview the new SRP fieldwork training videos.
This year’s keynote speaker will be renowned historian, author and broadcaster Dr Fiona Watson, who will engage us with her lecture “Everyday life on the land: a hidden history”. A wine reception and conference dinner will be hosted after proceedings on Saturday night where there will be plenty of opportunities to meet and share ideas with fellow SRP participants. Our guided walks to two local rural settlement sites on Sunday morning will help blow away the cobwebs and stimulate further discussion.
The conference programme and registration details are now available on the SRP website. Please book early as places are restricted (especially on the guided walks). We look forward to seeing you in Crieff at the end of October.
SRP in 2010
As SRP moves inexorably towards its finale in October 2011, we have made some changes to our strategy for this year. Since we are not yet able to guarantee the nature of volunteer support that will be available once SRP has finished, our aim this year is to provide as much assistance as possible to existing projects to enable them to complete their current work and confidently continue new research after SRP, if they want. To achieve this, we have scaled back on initiating new projects and on our fieldwork training courses so that we can provide more bespoke training, site visits and office support for SRP groups. We have also developed a series of workshops in specific skills that are not covered in detail in our fieldwork training courses – details of these are given below in the section on SRP Workshops.
In September, a new SRP team member will join us for the final year of the project (see under ‘New faces’ below). This will enable us to do even more in 2011 including, we hope, further fieldwork training courses and skills workshops.
And 2011… Be assured that we are working hard behind the scenes with RCAHMS on the SRP ‘legacy’ so that local groups will be able to continue and, hopefully, expand their work after SRP finishes. We will certainly keep you up to date with all developments!
SRP Projects
At the start of 2010 we had 61 projects on the go or already completed – over 150% in excess of our target of 40. We are at any interesting stage now, with many of these projects nearing completion, and we continue to be hugely impressed with the quality and quantity of work produced.
Raising awareness
A big thank you to all the SRP projects that have sent us details of the many events and activities you are organizing to raise awareness of your work and your rural heritage. These include talks to local groups and at conferences, exhibitions, guided walks and a whole variety of publications. We are all extremely impressed with the quality and quantity of ‘outreach’ events and are delighted that SRP has played a role in this. We would recommend to anyone passing through Dingwall that they go and have a look at the work by the North of Scotland Archaeology Society (NOSAS) on their two SRP projects – Strathconon and Mulchaich – which is on display alongside the ‘Drovers Exhibition’ in the Highland Auction Mart, Dingwall, for the next few months (Monday-Friday 9am-4pm and some Saturdays).
Sharing results
We are always delighted when SRP projects share their experiences. A great example of this is the recent exchange between Shetland and Killin. Pupils at Uyeasound primary school in Unst started an SRP project in 2009 to create a photographic record of abandoned croft houses on the island, building on the drawings and photographs of a local woman from the 1970s and 1980s. Their work is being used in presentations to visitors during the Shetland Hamefarin festival 2010, both in the classroom and in the local heritage centre. In June, Willie and Gina Angus from the Killin SRP project visited to school to share insights and tips into successful surveying, which was greatly enjoyed by pupils and staff.
Prize winners!
Sue and Fiona of the High Morlaggan Project continue to go from strength to strength with their work. They have made news on numerous occasions this year: in February they received the Robert Kiln Trust Award at the Current Archaeology 2010 conference held at the British Museum. This prestigious award is given ‘for the best archaeology project, or a series of works or projects, carried out in the UK by a voluntary body or individual’. They then went on to win a ‘Highly Commended’ for Best Community Archaeology Project in the British Academy Awards, presented at the British Museum in July.
Since submitting their survey records to RCAHMS, Sue and Fiona have continued their research, working in partnership with Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and Kilmartin House Museum to excavate the High Morlaggan township remains - attracting over 100 volunteer diggers of all ages, despite the appalling weather. They organised a highly successful event in March in the new Three Villages Hall in Arrochar to share and celebrate the results of their excavation and, more recently, had a brush with royalty at the official opening of the Arrochar Three Villages Hall by the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay. HRH Prince Charles, who studied archaeology at university, took an interest in the High Morlaggan exhibition and the local school children who were presenting their school project about the site. Sue and Fiona even managed to get a copy of the site report autographed!
New SRP Projects
Despite our new strategy, we have adopted four new projects this year which will complete within the timespan of SRP. As detailed below, these include two projects in Caithness, resulting from our fieldwork training course at Broubster last September:
Burrigill, Caithness: recording the ruins at Burrigill, Forse, near Lybster.
Clunes, Achnacarry: a comprehensive survey of sites around Cunes and Achnacarry, Loch Lochy, beginning with Clunes Farmstead.
Noss Head, Caithness: a survey of five sites to check the accuracy of the Caithness Coastal Survey, carried out in 1981, and update if necessary.
North Ayrshire Mills: identifying and recording all of the watermills in North Ayrshire as depicted on the first edition OS map.
Information about these, and all other SRP projects, can be found on the SRP website Projects pages. These pages are developed by the individual projects, and we would like to encourage all our groups to add material to their projects pages in order to share it with others. Uploading information and images should be much more straightforward after our website revamp last year, but please contact us if you have any problems.
Completed projects
A total of 21 SRP projects have now been completed, which represents over 50% of the overall project target. This includes the impressive Strathconon project undertaken by the North of Scotland Archaeology Society (NOSAS). This project identified, surveyed and recorded well over 250 sites along a 30-mile stretch of Strathconon - a mammoth undertaking indeed! While previous NOSAS projects have been submitted to RCAHMS as a hard-copy report, we are delighted that NOSAS have submitted their individual site records to SRP via the on-line form. Courtesy of their data inputting, we can validate their data and make the information, photographs and plans for each site available more widely through Canmore. All those involved, and Meryl Marshall in particular, are to be congratulated on their inspiring work. Plans for full publication of the work are now underway.
The process of validating records and adding them to Canmore is ongoing and being undertaken at length by Danny and Ishbel. Over 121 new site records have now been added to Canmore since the SRP project began. The sites validated since the last newsletter, and now publicly accessible through Canmore, are listed at the end of this newsletter. If you have completed any site records, please do try out our on-line form to submit them to RCAHMS. A step-by-step guide on how to use the form is available on our website in the Doing>Recording section. If you have any queries about the online form do get in touch with the SRP team for help and guidance – and remember that we are always happy to provide training. We would like to get as many records processed this year to avoid a rush to upload them towards the end of SRP.
Our thanks and congratulations to all those who have completed their projects – you have made a real difference in adding to our collective understanding of rural settlement.
Don’t forget to update your project pages on the SRP website to let everyone know about your results!
SRP Training in 2010
Fieldwork training courses
As we are scaled back our fieldwork training this year, we are only planning to run two of our popular two-day courses. The first of these was held at the wonderful site of Arichonan in Argyll in late April. Here we were joined by a mixture of volunteers and professionals, including staff from the Forestry Commission, the two National Parks and the Galgael project. Galgael – based in Glasgow – helps to rehabilitate long-term unemployed and socially deprived people in Govan through craft and skills training. Now that the group has renovated a derelict farmhouse on Loch Awe to use as their rural base, they are ready to begin surveying settlement remains in conjunction with staff from Kilmartin museum. We have been in contact with Galgael since the beginning of SRP and are delighted that our training will be put to good use in their rehabilitation scheme.
We also ran a one day fieldwork training course at Threipmuir Farm in the Pentlands, Mid-Lothian, in April. For this, were joined by members of the Peebleshire Archaeology Society who started an SRP project in late 2009, and the staff of the Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland who were interested in observing our training courses and seeing an HLF funded project from a participant’s point of view. After spending a cold, damp day out on site, the HLF staff were very impressed by the resilience and waterproofing of our volunteers.
Our second fieldwork training course for this will be held in Glen Banchor, Newtonmore, on 26-27 August. Please get in contact with us if you are interested in coming on this course this course. With our new team member in place later this year, we hope we will be able to run further fieldwork training courses in 2011.
We are also planning a new type of fieldwork training this year. This ‘Training for Trainers’ is one of the SRP objectives and is intended for anyone working with young people or members of the public. The course is designed to help ‘Trainers’ engage people with rural settlement remains and encourage them to learn about rural settlement history and archaeology through low-key active participation. We have a number of Young Archaeologist Club leaders and Rangers signed up for the course so far, and we have a few spaces left for anyone who would benefit from this training. Please get in contact if you are interested and we will send you details. The training will be held in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland on their Mar Lodge estate in the Cairngorms on 6-7 August.
Historical Document Training
We have continued to run our two-day Historical Document Training courses every six months. In January, we ran the course in Inverness in partnership with the Highland Archive and Registration Centre and in July we ran the course at RCAHMS again. We continue to have an excellent turn out for these popular and useful courses.
We plan to run another two-day course in Aberdeen in partnership with the University Archive, on 8-9 December. There are no plans at present for running this training in 2011, but we hope that RCAHMS will adopt it and take it over in some form or other in the near future.
SRP Skills Workshops
The SRP team, working with experts from RCAHMS, has developed a series of four new training workshops for volunteers on skills not specifically covered by our standard training. These workshops focus on topics requested by delegates at last year’s SRP conference, and we have aimed to meet your requests as far as possible. The four workshop topics are Site photography, Archaeological illustration, Heritage interpretation and Presenting material to the public. The courses have been well received and will, we hope, help volunteers complete their work and develop new projects. As ever, feedback from participants has been extremely valuable in refining these courses, some of which will be run again in the autumn. We also hope that RCAHMS may continue with some of the topics.
Education
Since our last newsletter our Education Officer, Brian Wilkinson, has complete four projects with schools (detailed below) and three schools visits (Aden School in Aberdeenshire, Uyeasound Primary in Shetland, and Oban High School in Argyll). There have also been some exciting developments with schools visited earlier in 2009.
Gairloch
A class talk was presented and a visit made to Lonemore crofting township with the Gaelic medium class of Gairloch primary together with Anne and Dorothy from the now completed Gairloch SRP project. Having spent the day sketching and measuring some of the croft houses, both the class teacher and school head expressed an interest in developing these exercises further into a full school project, which Brian will work on with them.
Orkney
Visits were made to Stronsay, Shapinsay and Westray schools who are each taking part in the Crofting Connections project. This project is a joint initiative between the Soil Association and the Scottish Crofting Federation aimed at investigating the crofting past, present and future. The SRP Education Officer took the pupils to explore a variety of improved and pre-improvement farmsteads to inform their research on the history of crofting on their islands.
Aberdeenshire
Planning also continued on the year-long ‘LOST?’ project with Aboyne Academy. In conjunction with the Braemar and Glen Muick SRP projects, the S1 pupils will visit, record and interpret the settlement remains at Auchtavan over the coming school year. The results of their enterprise will be put on permanent display at Braemar Castle as a means of interpreting the site, and others like it, to visitors. The project has already attracted the attention of the local press and promises to be an exciting and worthwhile venture.
Other news
Cairngorm National Park conference
SRP was well represented at the Cairngorms Cultural Heritage Conference which took place in Boat of Garten on Saturday 12 June. The aim of the conference was to give communities in the Park the opportunity to make connections, share experiences and learn about resources available to assist them with their own cultural heritage projects. Encouragement and insight was given by SRP’s Ishbel MacKinnon who presented on the background and scope of Scotland’s Rural Past, while more specific case studies were delivered by Glyn Jones, of the Glen Muick SRP project, and Sue Furness and Fiona Jackson, of the High Morlaggan project. It is especially rewarding to see that SRP is being held up as a leading example of best practice in community cultural heritage projects, and a reflection of what SRP participants and staff have jointly managed to achieve so far.
New Scottish Community Archaeology Booklet
Following on from the highly successful community archaeology conference that was held in May 2009, East Lothian Council and Archaeology Scotland have produced a colour booklet which showcases just some of the different types of community archaeology projects taking place across Scotland today including, of course, SRP.
The first of its kind, this booklet clearly demonstrates the amount of progress that has been made in community archaeology in Scotland over the last ten years and it is crammed full of examples of fantastic archaeology projects from all over the country in addition to supporting articles by national heritage organisations.
To get a copy of the booklet please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 01620 827408 or write to Cultural Services, 9-11 Lodge Street, Haddington, East Lothian, EH41 3HA referencing 'Community Archaeology Booklet'. Booklets are priced at £3. Cheques should be made out to East Lothian Council.
SRP Photo Competition
A reminder to everyone that our Photo Competition is running throughout 2010. Entries are judged at the end of each month. The winning photos are displayed on our website for the following month, and go forward into the final competition round which will be judged in early 2011. Unique prizes will be awarded! Your entries can easily be uploaded via our website, where you can also find more information about the competition.
New Faces
RCAHMS’ Head of Survey and Recording (and Project Executive for SRP), Jack Stevenson, will be retiring this summer after several decades of service. However, as one door closes, another opens, and Jack will take up the reins as President of Archaeology Scotland, where he will continue to have a practical interest in the development and continued success of Community Archaeology in Scotland. Jack’s replacement, Robin Turner, will be familiar to many SRP volunteers. Robin is currently Head of Archaeology for the National Trust for Scotland, and a guiding hand behind the SRP project since its inception.
Look out also for a new SRP team member, coming this summer. We are currently advertising for a Community Liaison Officer to assist with the project. Interviews will take place in July, and our new colleague will be in post by late summer, just in time to help with preparations for the autumn conference.
SRP training videos
Since February, we have added scriptwriting and acting to our repertoire of skills as we have been making a series of short films on survey and recording techniques. We have been working with filmmakers Graham Drysdale and Becky Brazil (who incidentally won a Scottish BAFTA …) on four illustrative films aimed at teaching archaeological skills – site sketching, plane tabling, tape and offset, and GPS survey. They will be hosted on the SRP website, and can be used in conjunction with the revised survey manual, due to be launched in 2011. The films and survey manual are part of the ‘SRP legacy’ and will, we hope, help people survey and record rural settlements (or any other type of archaeological site) without SRP actually being there. Watch out for the premier (and red carpet) at this year’s conference!
Revised RCAHMS opening hours
RCAHMS have recently revised opening hours of the search room and implemented a new system for consulting stored collection material. Opening hours are now as follows (we are closed on public and local holidays):
Monday - closed (pre-booked group visits only)
Tuesday - 9:30am to 5pm
Wednesday - 9:30am to 5pm
Thursday - 9:30am to 6pm
Friday - 9:30am to 5pm
Please note especially the closure of the search room to the public on a Monday, and the later opening hours on Thursday evenings.
There is a also a new system for consulting stored collection items. Archive Request Forms now need to be completed for this material, up to a maximum of 10 items per request. The retrieval of requested collection items is at set times throughout the day:
10:30, 12:00, 13:30, and 15:00 for the National Collection of Aerial Photography and
10:30, 13:00, and 15:00 for all other material.
Appointments are always required for consulting the National Collection of Aerial Photography.
Highland Folk Museum
The Highland Council is currently consulting on budget proposals, and museums, including the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore, as well as the Am Baile web resource are affected by these proposals. Members of the public are being asked to give their views. If you would like to comment or contribute to the debate, please visit The Highland Council website, www.highland.gov.uk, click on budget consultation and complete the questionnaire. Alternatively, you can email the Council on
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Having your cake and eating it
We all know that fieldwork can be exhausting work, and what better to keep your energy and spirits up out of doors than a good slice of cake? The other SAS (that’s the Strath Avon Survey) have sent the team this recipe for their renowned SAS Fruitcake which, alongside pencils and string, is the secret weapon in their surveying arsenal.
6oz butter
6oz sugar (white or half-and-half white and soft brown)
3 eggs (nice yellow ones which can be stolen from next-door’s hens)
8oz self-raising flour
1 level teaspoonful baking powder
1 big teaspoonful ground mixed spice (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves – especially cloves)
Dried fruit (raisins and/or sultanas – at least 8 oz, 12 oz is better. Soak the fruit in warm water – perhaps with a dash of sweet sherry – for 15 minutes and drain before use)
1. Cream butter and sugar with electric hand whisk
2. Whisk eggs; add whisked eggs a little at a time to creamed butter and sugar, whisking all the time with electric hand whisk; if the mixture begins to curdle add a spoonful of the flour.
3. Sift in the flour with baking powder and spice; beat with wooden spoon till well mixed
4. Stir in the mixed fruit
5. Turn into a well greased/ greaseproof paper-lined 8-inch cake tin
6. Bake for 1½ hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, rotating the tin two or three times to ensure even cooking; test with skewer
Culinary tip from the SAS cook: I sometimes cook it a little longer and cooler – though this can over cook the outside.
Any other recipes gratefully received!
And finally
We were saddened to hear of the death of SRP volunteer John Wilson who passed away in April following a serious illness. John had been active on Skye, single handedly recording numerous sites in Glen Haultin. We are now training and working with a very capable archaeology student from Edinburgh University to complete the work John started and upload his records to the RCAHMS database.
APPENDIX: New sites added to RCAHMS database since the last newsletter
Our next newsletter is due in December 2010.
Previous newsletters
Newsletter 1 Spring 2007
Newsletter 2 Autumn 2007
Newsletter 3 Spring 2008
Newsletter 4 Autumn 2008
Newsletter 5 Summer 2009
Additional Information
Quicklinks
Upcoming Events
- SRP skills workshop - Archaeological drawing skills 09.09.2010 - 09.09.2010 | 09.00
- SRP skills workshop - Archaeological drawing skills 16.09.2010 - 16.09.2010 | 09.00
- SRP Conference 30.10.2010 - 31.10.2010
- SRP skills workshop - Hertiage interpretation 19.11.2010 - 19.11.2010 | 09.00
- Historic Documents Training Course 08.12.2010 - 09.12.2010
Training
- SRP skills workshop - Archaeological drawing skills 09.09.2010 - 09.09.2010 | 09.00
- SRP skills workshop - Archaeological drawing skills 16.09.2010 - 16.09.2010 | 09.00
- SRP skills workshop - Hertiage interpretation 19.11.2010 - 19.11.2010 | 09.00
- Historic Documents Training Course 08.12.2010 - 09.12.2010
