Tag: travel
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…
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…
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…
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.…
Publication Announcement: Wicked Wild Wastes?
We’re excited to announce the latest project publication (Open Access), coming off the back of my PhD research into repopulating in upland landscapes, aerial and walkover surveys on Rannoch Moor, and inspired by the creative approaches of my colleagues: Wicked Wild Wastes? Challenging Wildness through Repopulating Approaches to Archaeological Narratives in Scottish Highland Landscapes You…
Look up, look down, look all around: A trip with the Archaeo-botanists
Between the 30th July and 1st August I was joined by Nicholas Cullen, Sabrina Ross, Cole Juckette and Nicky Juckette, for a series of site visits to our excavations across Glencoe, and some areas we would like to investigate around Rannoch Moor. Nick is our projects archaeo-botanist, based at Stanford University and a specialist in…
Glencoe fieldschool open day
05/07/25 Today was the Open Day at the NTS (National Trust of Scotland) Visitor Centre in Glencoe. Whilst the media team set up a presentation in the replica turf house the other students where put to work in the exhibition space manning tables of different activities. One section of the room was presenting the finds…