20 September 2013

Community excavation taking place 1-21 September, run by Fraser Hunter of National Museums of Scotland at Clarkly Hill, near Burghead. Volunteers are requested to commit for at least three days.

Part of the Moray Archaeology for All programme. Preference given to residents of Moray, but contact the organisers to see if there are spare places. Booking essential.

MORAY ARCHAEOLOGY FOR ALL

The tasks we will be undertaking as part of this project are as follows:

• Flotation of soil samples to extract environmental remains
• Preparation of site archives
• Finds washing & sample sorting
• Excavation
• Fieldwalking and geophysics

The timetable is still being developed, but the dates at present are as follows:

FLOTATION
The first flotation session will take place from 2-5 August, at Dykeside farm, Birnie. We will take people in half-day slots. There will be further events in the autumn.

ARCHIVE WORK & FINDS WASHING
This will take place in the Falconer Museum (Forres) from 10-4, every Monday from 12th August.

Additionally, there will be sessions on Thursday 15th and 22nd.

EXCAVATION
This will take place at Clarkly Hill from 1-21 September. We ask for a minimum of three days of volunteer time over this period.

FIELDWALKING & GEOPHYSICS
This will take place in the autumn, details to be confirmed nearer the time. We will hold a training evening in finds identification in September.

To express interest in any or all of these, please email clarklyleader@hotmail.co.uk
 

20 September 2013

 As part of the Boblainy Forest Community Archaeology project, this walk led by Susan Kruse will look at the abandoned settlement of Instaing and remnants of a Canadian Forestry Camp. Meet at Kiltarlity Village Hall to arrange carpooling.  If you bring a packed lunch we can lunch on the site and this would enable us to continue into the afternoon if it seemed worthwhile at that point.

For further information, contact Susan Kruse at ARCH on 01349 868230 or info@archhighland.org.uk

20 September 2013

 From 20th September to 7th October 2013, AOC Archaeology Group, on behalf of one of the UK’s leading renewable energy developers, RWE npower renewables (RWE NRL), will be carrying out an archaeological dig around RWE NRL’s Burn of Whilk Wind Farm in Caithness. The focus of the excavations will be the Warehouse chambered cairns; AOC together with volunteers will be investigating two of these impressive burial monuments to characterise and date the structures, and to make them more presentable to the public.

While Caithness is a region rich in archaeological history, we still know very little about many of the identified monuments of importance. The excavations in the coming weeks should shed new light on the Neolithic and Bronze Age of the county. As with all such projects in Caithness, AOC is keen to get as many volunteers to take part as possible. You can participate for any length of time and no previous experience is required – full training and all tools and equipment will be provided.

If you would like to participate, please get in touch with Andy Heald on 07824 562186 or email him at andy.heald@aocarchaeology.com. Arrangements for where to meet etc. will be sent out after you have registered with Andy.