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The Capturing the Coastline Photographic Exhibition is currently showing in two venues. It will be at the Art Gallery, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery between 29th March – 3rd May 2008. Following this, it will tour other venues in Highland region.
It is also on at Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Art Centre in North Uist.
The SCAPE Trust and the Clyne Heritage Society have been excavating eroding salt pans at Brora, Sutherland. This work has been funded by Historic Scotland and the National Lottery, Awards for All. The Clyne Heritage Society has prepared information and images and SCAPE has worked with them to produce web pages dedicated to the project. These pages can now be viewed at www.shorewatch.co.uk/brora.
The report on the first season of excavation has just been completed, and is available from the 'reports' page of the Brora website.
The SCAPE Trust has been developing a project in partnership with the Council for Scottish Archaeology and the Bressay History Society. If funding applications are successful, eroding structures contained within a burnt mound will be excavated. This site was partially examined by EASE Archaeology in 1999. Since then, the site has continued to erode and parts of it have been washed away. The plan is to excavate the site, dismantle the walls and rebuild them next to the Bressay Heritage Centre. The reconstructed monument will act as a focus for experimental archaeology and outreach projects. Due to its proximity to Bressay ferry, there will be easy access from Lerwick and it is expected that the project will help to In attract more visitors to this fascinating island.
Members of SCAPE have been busy spreading the word about Scotland’s coastal archaeology and erosion. Tom Dawson gave a paper at the CBA Climate Change conference at the British Academy, London in July 2007.
In September, he joined Katinka Stentoft to deliver a paper at the Environmental Histories of Europe and Japan Conference in Kobe, Japan. This was followed by a paper at the Historic Environment Advisory Council for Scotland conference in Stirling, preceded by a front page spread in the Sunday Herald newspaper.
Historic Scotland funded a second season of excavation at Baile Sear, North Uist in August. The excavation was organised by SCAPE on behalf of the local Uist heritage group, Access Archaeology. Two trenches were opened, one under the supervision of Kate MacDonald, an archaeologist from Lochboisdale, South Uist and the other under the supervision of Ian Mchardy, an archaeologist from Stornoway, Lewis.
Both trenches encountered drystone walling which was up to a metre high in places. Kate’s trench was placed over an Iron Age wheelhouse sitting on the beach and Ian’s trench revealed several cellular structures.
The remains are very vulnerable to erosion, but it is hoped that they will survive this winter’s storms so that they can be investigated further. The excavation reports are currently being compiled and will be placed on this website when finished.
A two week excavation at remains of the old salt works at Brora started on August 20th. This work followed on from previous investigation carried out by the Clyne Heritage Society in collaboration with SCAPE. Masonry has been exposed on the beach for a number of years, and a detailed survey by CFA Archaeology in November 2005 showed that there were substantial remains behind the coast edge that would soon be vulnerable to erosion.
The excavation was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Scotland and the work was directed by Janet Hooper, a local archaeologist based in Inverness. There was very strong local interest in the work and numerous people volunteered their time to participate. Several structures were revealed, one with a paved floor in tact. The excavation report is currently being finished and a website relating to the excavation, and written by the Clyne Heritage Society, is being hosted by SCAPE.
The excavation of the Iron Age structure on Unst, Sheltand, has been completed. The final season saw the last parts of the site being excavated, under the direction of Olivia Lelong. This was followed by reconstructing some of the structures, based on detailed drawings and photographs. The reconstruction was completed by Jim Keddie and Ric Barton from the Scatness project, under the direction of Helen Bradley, project officer of the Council for Scottish Archaeology’s Adopt - a - Monument scheme. Shetland Islands Council has sponsored an upgrade of local parking facilities and the track to the site. A sign will soon be installed at the site. The website about the project has been updated and can be seen here.
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