Category: Fieldwork
Survey 2026: The Joy of Walls
If you’re into landscape survey and later historical periods in the Scottish Highlands, you have to be very interested in walls. And fortunately – we are… One of the great things about doing the Glencoe survey as part of a field school is that there is always time to stop and talk about what you’re…
Kailyards and hunting lodges
An update from our excavation team after our 2026 season. The excavations at Achnacon were led by Dr Edward Stewart (AS), Derek Alexander (NTS), Amy Hellier (Perth Museums) and Leonore Kitt (UofG). Excavation This summer we were back in Achnacon exploring a kailyard adjacent to the modern sheepfold. Kailyards were garden plots attached to individual…
Glencoe Summer Season 2026
This summer we will be back in Achnacon excavating an enclosure within the township area. This investigation builds on our previous excavations in the kailyards, corn kilns, platforms and field systems of this township. By digging these features and securing soil samples from their deposits, and artefacts for dating, we can build up a picture…
Achtriachtan and the Power of Walking
The 19th-century complex (students left), the excavated house (students centre) and the house on the knoll above (students right) (Photo: Michael Given) It’s a slightly depressing thought that so much of learning archaeology is done by sitting in a lecture room or in front of a computer. That’s certainly been the case with my course…
Oh Schist! A millstone quarry at 400m
Last week Derek Alexander (NTS) and I climbed up to Corrie na Cuilc to explore two sites recorded in the previous NTS survey of Glencoe (carried out in 1996 by Harden and Wordsworth). While we struggled to find the still site recorded by the previous survey, perhaps due to the low light (which never reached…
Archaeology of Light and Change
As the year turns again, we find ourselves in the shortest and darkest days. In Scotland, as in other northerly places, this time of year provides an important reminder that while in some ways the past may feel distant and inaccessible, in other ways, things remain very much the same. Particularly in the deep Glens…
In the Lab: Soil Science
Blogpost by Leonore Kitt (Excavations Assistant) During the excavations back in 2024, you have probably seen me and a few helping hands jamming a metal cylinder on the walls of the kailyard and the rig and furrow test pits. Once in the lab, those samples proved very useful to have a better insight into how…
Post Excavation: What we get up to!
Once we returned from the season in Glencoe there was still plenty work to do. Alongside our students we set out to ensure all our records, finds and samples were in order after the season. It is always a little chaotic at the end of the field season so it is good to have time…
Why Model? Digital Archaeology in Glencoe
In 2025, as in previous seasons, we again employed some targeted 3D photogrammetric capture for the excavation team. In collaboration with Eddie and Derek in the early season we created a series of 3D models of the major open trenches which display their progress through the excavation. This year at Glencoe there were three areas…
Glencoe 26/06/25
Within the legendary and imposing landscapes of Glencoe it is easy to miss the stories told by simply looking down at the land beneath your feet. Day 1 of survey taught us that observations of the smaller things are the building blocks of archaeology. For example a lot is revealed by plants within the landscape.…