Living in the Past

In spring 2011, ARCH and the Scotland's Rural Past project worked with Tore Primary school and Inverness Young Archaeologists Club and Ross and Cromarty Young Archaeologists Club (RaCYAC) exploring a derelict croft and other sites at the Heights of Kilcoy near Tore in Ross-shire.

Tore Primary School spent several months preparing for the visit, including with visits by ARCH project officers to play 'The Rubbish Game' and Ross and Cromarty Archaeology Service staff to find out more about Bronze Age burials. Then on a Friday in March, the entire school arrived on site to explore the croft site with Brian Wilkinson of Scotland's Rural Past project, a well preserved sheep dip with ARCH board member Alasdair Cameron and project officer Susan Kruse, and an early Bronze Age Clava-type burial cairn at Carn Urnan with ARCH project officer Cathy MacIver. As heritage detectives the children asked questions and recorded remains, and took some hi-spy pictures. In the afternoon there was more investigation back in the classroom, looking at maps, finds and pictures of similar sites.

The following day it was the turn of the YACs, who concentrated on recording the site in the morning. In the afternoon they worked with artist Lizzie McDougall to interpret the remains, creating a series of drawings illustrating the history of the croft. In later sessions the YAC members pulled these together to create a display of artwork and a powerpoint presentation, both featuring at the June 2011 Scotland's Rural Past final conference.