05 April 2025, Starts: 09:45, Ends: 16:30

Supporting the Roof in Pre-improvement Vernacular Buildings in Scotland 

Seminar organised by North of Scotland Archaeological Society (NoSAS). For bookings, see their website. Cost £15 NoSAS members, £20 non-members

This NOSAS seminar brings together speakers from across Scotland who will contribute to an understanding of the ways that the roof was supported in pre-improvement vernacular buildings in Scotland. Cruck-framed construction has been a traditional method of supporting the roof across Scotland. But there were areas of Scotland where there is no or little archaeological evidence of cruck-frames. What preceded crucks? And why were they superceded in the late 18th and early 19th centuries?

Venue: Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore

Morning   0945-1315 : The speakers for the morning seminar are:

• Malcolm Bangor Jones (Historian): The evidence for crucks in the Northern Highlands
• Piers Dixon (ex-RCAHMS): Bridging the gap: how do we interpret archaeological evidence for cruck roofs in the light of architectural survival?
• David Newman (ex architect, ex Uist): Roof construction in Hebridean Thatched Houses
• Coralie Mills (Dendrochronicle): Tree-ring evidence for vernacular roof structures in Scotland (Video presentation)
• Derek Alexander (National Trust for Scotland): Crucks Slots - Gaps in our understanding or a void in the evidence?
• Daniel Postma (Archaeo Build): Typology or not typology, that's the question: archaeological evidence for 5th-13th century crucks in the Netherlands

Afternoon 1415 - 1630: In the afternoon we will be guided round the constructed pre-improvement buildings at the Folk Museum by Bob Powell, who was a previous Principal Museums Officer at the museum.