March 2013Issue 22Introduction

Welcome to our second newsletter of2013. It’s been a busy February andMarch, with courses in Ardersier andEaster Ross. Behind the sceneswe’ve been busy progressing fundingapplications for the Telford project andto return for another season at Foulis,and are in early stages of planningfuture work.

The next two ARCH lectures willcombine an evening talk, with walksand survey on nearby days. And we’revery pleased that Professor RolandPaxton, renowned expert on ThomasTelford, will be coming to give us theMay ARCH lecture.

Picturing ArchaeologyThe last in Lachlan’s series of Picturing Archaeology workshops willtake place on Sunday, 24th March, 10am to 3:30 in Alness.

This workshop is a great way to explore and take pictures andsketches of local heritage – you are guaranteed to look with neweyes! After a break for lunch (bring your own), Lachlan will sharehis love of free photsynth software to create a 3-D model of a site,and explain how to place the resulting model on a map for others toenjoy. No experience necessary, and all equipment provided,

although people are welcome to bring their owncameras.

Meet at 10am at the Alness Heritage Centre.

Telford’s Highland HeritageOur application for a three year project allowing communities toexplore Telford’s Highland Heritage has passed its first roundhurdle with the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Heritage Lottery Fund isnow funding help in identifying match funding and progressing partsof the application.Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey asking forthoughts about the project. If youwould like to be kept informed offuture developments, do drop us aline.

And be sure tolook out forProfessor Paxton’slecture on 27 thMay. See page 4

Ardersier HeritageOver a dozenpeople havebeen meetingin Ardersier tolearnaboutlocal

heritagethrough the ages, and how tofind out more about subjectswhich interest them. Theresults will be collated into a binderwhich will be given to the ArdersierLibrary, along with 1st and 2ndedition Ordnance Survey maps. Asis often the case with these courses,they have only whet the appetite, andthere is clearly an interest for takingforward otherprojects! Thecourses werefunded byHigh LifeHighland.

Telford pier, Redcastle, Black IsleDoocot, Ardersier

Nonikiln Church ruins, Alness

Norse mount

Evanton Wartime RemainsThe Evanton Wartime Remains project isin full action now. Every Wednesdayevening at the Cornerstone Cafe inEvanton, 7-9:30pm there are sessions toshare memories, explore resources, andwork towards recording the wartimeremains in the village. Schools will beinvolved, with sessions related tomapping skills and outdoor survey.Several walks and opportunities torecord remains using photography andGPS are also planned – see theprogramme in the newsletter, or on theARCH website. There will also be

opportunities to help create a display and leaflet telling thestory. Come for one or all of the sessions! If you want to bekept informed of additional activities, contact the ARCH office.

Evanton Wartime Remains ProgrammeIndoor Sessions (all at Cornerstone Café)Archives and Other ResourcesWed 20th Mar 7-9:30 Archives: HER and CANMOREWed 27th Mar 7-9:30 Archives: National ArchivesWed 3rd Apr 7-9:30 Archives: Aerial Photographs & Google EarthWed 10th Apr 7-9:30 Pulling it together and preparing for surveyWed 17th Apr 7-9:30 Sharing Memories 4Wed 24th Apr 7-9:30 To be arranged.Wed 1st-29th May 7-9:30 Pulling it togetherSat 1st June 10-2 Display day / collecting memoriesWed 5th June – 3rd July, 7-9:30 Creating a leaflet

Look out too for Allan Kilpatrick’s talk on the Wartime Remains of Easter Ross onTuesday 2nd April. See page 4 for details.

Outdoor sessions: (Subject to change due to weather)Sunday 24th March: photography and GPSSaturday 6th April: Family walk - matching archive materials to remains on the groundsSaturday & Sunday 13th & 14th April: Outdoor SurveySaturday & Sunday 20th & 21st April: Outdoor SurveyContact the ARCH office for times and meeting places

Evanton Wartime Remains is funded by the European Community Highland LEADER 2007-2013 Programme,Kiltearn Community Council’s Novar Windfarm funding (supported by RWEnpower renewables), The Highland Council,the Cooperative Membership Fund and the Robert Kiln Trust.

Georeferenced map of wartimeEvanton Airfileld, produced byMalcolm Standring

Photographs courtesy ofAdrian Clark

ARCH lecture seriesLectures will take place in Dingwall, Evanton and Inverness, so check carefully!Suggested donation is £3.

MARCHOn 25th March, at 7.30pm in Dingwall CommunityCentre Eve Boyle of the RCAHMS will be giving us alecture on ‘Just some old huts in the hills!’ :Shielings in the Highlands and Islands ofScotland.’Until the early nineteenth century,shielings - upland summerpastures - were an indispensiblepart of the farming cycle rightacross the Highlands andIslands. Livestock were takeninland and uphill to make themost of remote pastures, and toprotect growing crops lowerdown. We sometimes have animage of the shieling as symbolic of the freedom ofthe hills, a place for romance and poetry, but in realitythis was a tightly-managed system of land use, whererights were defended robustly. This talk will look at thehistory of shielings, at the archaeology of shielingsettlements across Scotland, and examine how andwhy the system finally came to an end.

Eve and colleague Piers Dixon have kindly agreed toaccompany North of Scotland Archaeological Societymembers and ARCH supportors on two walks onTuesday and Wednesday 26th & 27th March.

Tues 26th March we will look at sites on the BlackIsle, visiting the distillery site, settlement andchambered cairn at Mulchaich Farm, near Alcaig inthe morningand Ormond Castle, Avoch inthe afternoon.The Mulchaich site is thesubject of an Adopt-A-Monument project byNOSAS; Ormond Castle isthe site of a medieval castle,but deserves furtherattention.Meet 10am at the FerintoshFree Church Car Park (NH

575 568) from where it is just a short walk round thecorner. Once on the site the going is quite rough andcan be wet in places so wear boots.

For lunch we can get soup and sandwiches at theStation Hotel in Avoch. Then forOrmond Castle meet at 2.30pm,parking at the bend in the road at thesouth end of Avoch village along thecoast (GR NH 698 543) from where itis a short walk along the coast, thensteeply up a small path to the castle(less than 1km in total). Again wearboots. Please car pool if possible tothe parking place.Come for either of the half days orboth.

Weds 27th March is a walk to look at shielings inStrathconon, an area where NOSAS has donecomprehensive fieldwork in the past. Meet at the carpark, GR NH 226 519 at 10.30am from where we willcombine cars, (or for those wishing to share cars forthe long drive up the glen (45mins) meet at theCommunity Hall car park at Marybank at 9.30am (notMaryburgh!! – several have been confused in thepast!)). The walk is about 8 to 9kms in length, partlyon a track but much of it over rough ground, so adecent level of fitness is required, and the weathercan be pretty rugged.

Two possible still sites are also included.

Wear suitable gear and bring a picnic

Many thanks to Meryl Marshallof NOSAS for organising thesetwo days. If you intend to comealong on the walks, it would beappreciated it if you wouldnotify the ARCH office, so wehave some idea of numbers.

Ormond Hill, AvochImage from walkhighlands.co.uk

ARCH lectures continued . . .

APRIL

As mentioned in the last newsletter, Jo Hambly ofSCAPE will be coming up to talk about the Scotland’sCoastal Heritage at Risk Project on Monday 29thApril at Dingwall Community Centre, 7:30pm.

The SCAPE Trust, University of St Andrews has beenworking with the public and carrying out research intoScotland's coastal archaeology, in particular the impactof coastal change to it, for over a decade. JoannaHambly will talk about some of the discoveries thathave been made, what's going on now - and what's onthe horizon for Scotland's coastal heritage.

On the Sunday before the lecture (28th April),there’s an opportunity to learn how to recordcoastal sites with Jo and her team. Meet atCornerstone Cafe, Evanton at 1pm (bring a laptopand/or smart phone if you have one, although somewill be provided as well). We’ll end the day with aquick visit to a nearby coastal site. On the Monday,we’ll meet at 10 am at the Church Hall in Evanton,and have a longer day recording sites, finishingaround 3:30-4pm. Come for one or both days. If youhave access to computers, do try to register beforehand on their website [http://scharp.co.uk/]. This willsave time on the day!

Wartime remains in Easter RossTuesday 2 April: Cornerstone Cafe, Evanton at7.30pm. Allan Kilpatrick will talk about WartimeRemains in Easter Ross, including some of theremains in Evanton which we’re looking at in ARCH’sWartime Remains project.

MAYTelford’s Work in the HighlandsProfessor Roland Paxton will give a talk on Telford’swork in the Highlands on 27th May at 7.30pm inMillburn Academy in Inverness. He will highlight anumber of sites and in particular those which areunder threat through neglect. We are grateful to himfor providing the lecture, and the Institution of CivilEngineers for covering his travel and accommodationcosts. Any donations received on the day will be usedtowards fundraising for ARCH’s Telford’s HighlandHeritage Project.

Contact ARCHArchaeology for Communities in the Highlands

(ARCH)Education Centre

Castle StreetDingwall IV15 9HU

01349 868230

info@archhighland.org.uk

www.archhighland.org.ukwww.facebook.com/ARCHhighland

The ruins of Kiltearn Church, on the shore below Evanton Telford’s other canal . . . Dingwall