Soil samples: processed!
Jack would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who came along to help out with processing the soil samples at Castlehill Heritage Centre last month. We discovered that many of the samples are relatively rich in charcoal, and there are a small number of grains of barley as well. The charcoal and cereal will provide […]
Excavations underway!
The fourth and final week of fieldwork as part of AWindow on the Hidden Bronze Age Landscape of Caithness is well underway now! We’ve chosen as the subject of our investigations into Bronze Age settlement an interesting hut circle at Skaill, close to Baillie Hill and the chambered cairns on Cnoc Freiceadain. The site was not known before […]
Finally we look under the ground!
Summer School Week 3 has been really successful with the training of volunteers in geophysics and excavation. We returned to the Baillie area that we first visited on the very first day of fieldwork back in June. We had already discovered 2 hut circles and a possible burnt mound using the LiDAR data and walkover […]
Another week comes to a close
After a day inside the Castlehill Heritage Centre on Friday the volunteers were itching to get back out on site today (sort of…). Due to lots of weekend commitments only volunteers Alan and Paul joined AOC’s Gemma and Jamie to record two hut circles, a possible burnt mound and a few field walls in the […]
Fair-weather archaeologists?
Due to torrential rain and wind in Caithness (and seemingly the whole of Britain) today started off indoors. Volunteer Alan from the Heritage Centre kindly scanned some of the drawings the team had been doing in the field into the computer. AOC’s Gemma then showed volunteers Susan, George, Winnie and Paul how to use the […]
Another Bronze Age hut circle? Surely not!
What a tremendous day we had on site on site today in the sun and wind! (What a beautiful day and landscape. Oh, to be an archaeological surveyor…) The team went back to Broubster to finish off the sites they didn’t get around to on Wednesday. Unsurprisingly they recorded more hut circles, but they also surveyed […]
Broubster. Pronounced Broobster!
The troops assembled at Broubster today with two planes tables and Michelle (AOC’s GPS) because that is all they needed to record five hut circles, three field boundaries, two quarries and eighteen clearance cairns! AOC’s Jamie got volunteers Paul and Carol underway surveying one hut circle using a plane-table, while Winnie and Susan started soon […]
BOG post of the week
A great first day of fieldwork over at Shebster today with six volunteers recording five hut circles! The morning seemed a bit gloomy with our drive to site overwhelmed by rain, a new electric fence for us to battle and a team of midges attacking us. However, by the time we’d bypassed the fence, filled […]
Back to school!!
Week 2 of the Bronze Age Caithness project started at the heritage centre today, with volunteers back on the computers learning new software packages such as QGIS. Graeme led the sessions in the morning as he showed everybody how to reprocess the LiDAR data creating hillshades. Hillshading is the process of applying a specified altitude […]
Living History with Ancientcraft
On Saturday 6th June, Castlehill Heritage Centre will be travelling back in time. Join Ancientcraft as they recreate the Bronze Age, complete with a prehistoric dwelling, genuine and replica artefacts and crafts demonstrations. Ancientcraft will be at the Heritage Centre all day, so do some along and catch a glimpse of the past any time […]
