25 March 2013

"just some old huts in the hills!" - Shielings in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

Talk by Eve Boyle, of the RCAHMS

Dingwall Community Centre

Until the early nineteenth century, shielings - upland summer pastures - were an indispensible part of the farming cycle right across the Highlands and Islands. Livestock were taken inland and uphill to make the most of remote pastures, and to protect growing crops lower down. We sometimes have an image of the shieling as symbolic of the freedom of the hills, a place for romance and poetry, but in reality this was a tightly-managed system of land use, where rights were defended robustly. This talk will look at the history of shielings, at the archaeology of shieling settlements across Scotland, and examine how and why the system finally came to an end.

There will also be an opportunity to explore some shielings and other sites on the Tuesday and Wednesday with Eve. Contact the ARCH office if you would like to be kept informed.

25 March 2013

 As part of the Burn of Whilk, Caithness windfarm development RWE npower renewables (RWE NRL) commissioned a LiDAR survey of the area in and around their development. This includes Warehouse, Watenan and Yarrows. The survey revealed that that there may be many new sites of archaeological significance hidden beneath the ground that have not been previously identified through previous surveys.

RWE NRL has commissioned AOC Archaeology to undertake a walkover survey of some of the area to find out what the lumps and bumps are.

To this end, Andy Heald and John Barber (AOC Archaeology) will be undertaking a survey project on and around the Burn of Whilk Wind Farm site between 20th and 31st March 2013. John and Andy are keen to involve as many people as possible. Volunteers can come for any length of time and require no previous experience. As well as taking part in hopefully discovering new sites all volunteers will also be trained in all aspects of surveying and will have the opportunity to attend tours of other local archaeological sites. During March focus will be on looking at some of the possible new sites discovered during the LiDAR survey, particularly around the actual development area. AOC hope to visit all of the sites over the coming year. The results of the survey will be used to aid interpretation of the area over the next year.

If you would like to take part please contact Andy Heald at andy.heald@aocarchaeology.com or phone 07824562186