Tag: history
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…
Archaeology, Gaelic and the Glencoe Landscape: A workshop with An Lochran
We had a lovely night at the An Lochran centre in Partick, Glasgow, exploring the results from our recent excavations in Glencoe and how Gaelic – through placenames, storytelling and song – can contribute to our understandings of these landscapes and help us tell new stories! The session began with an introduction to Glencoe’s archaeology…
The house of many hearths: Fireside stories from Glencoe
During our 2024 and 2025 seasons excavating at the township of Achnacon we uncovered a large turf-walled house. Within the structure three hearths were identified, one within a stone setting flush with the floor surface and close to the Northern gable wall, another in the structure’s centre within a pit sealed with a cauldron fragment…
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…
Digging for Britain!
You can check out some of the findings from our 2024 and 2025 seasons at Achnacon on Digging for Britain now via BBC IPlayer. Their team joined us this summer to explore our exciting findings which shed new light on life before and after the Glencoe Massacre of 1692. Tori from Digging for Britain, does…
In the Archive: Finds Auditing
Leap into our artefact catalogues, finds studies and archiving processes with Amy Hellier, excavations and finds lab supervisor. ………….. If you have joined us on excavation over the past three years, I more than likely have taken the find you discovered, placed it in a finds bag, scribbled on a context and finds number with…
The Tarbh Uisge of Loch Achtriachtan: Fireside stories from Glencoe
A film by Lív Brownlie, Lauren Blackburn, Beatrice Sumner, and Alex Thomson, with contributions from Rhiannon Bramham and Mara Campbell. In the middle of Glencoe, at the foot of the three sisters, beside the white cottage at Achnambeithach, is Loch Achtriachtan. This loch presumably took its name after the township of Achtriachtan, where the remains…
Big Archie and the Stranger: Fireside stories from Glencoe
A story by Prof Michael Given The great thing about having a fire in the middle of the room is that you can sit round it. Everyone gets a share of the warmth, and no one is closer than anyone else. The wattled panels cover the turf walls on all sides, the couples stand proud…
The Chief’s coin pot: Fireside stories from Glencoe
A story by Dr Edward Stewart Alisdair Mac Alisdair Ruadh (‘Alexander son of red-haired Alexander‘) Chief of the MacIain MacDonalds of Glencoe. The chief, an old man now, sits by the fire on a chair carved of hewn oak staves, carved when the chief was but his fathers heir, and polished with age and wear.…