Field trip to Glencoe, August 2023
Published: 8 August 2023
Exploring the early modern landscape of Glencoe through archaeological, environmental and creative approaches.
A team of staff and students will be heading out to Glencoe between the 7-19 August as part of our field school projects. This project, drawing from the research interests of Dr Michael Given, Dr Gareth Beale, Dr Nicola Smith, Elizabeth Robertson and Edward Stewart will explore the early modern landscape of Glencoe through archaeological, environmental and creative approaches.
Excavations directed by Edward Stewart will focus on the settlement of Gleann Leac-na-Muidhe and the possible 'summerhouse' of MacIain, a possible chiefly dwelling, farm or hunting camp within the shieling grounds of Glencoe. A programme of environmental sampling aimed at understanding the chronology of this structure and the nearby shieling clusters excavated by Edward and a team of PGRs in 2021/22 has been funded thanks to the successful bid for funding from the Hunter Marshall fund by Dr Michael Given. This will also support micromorphology sampling which will hopefully bring nuance to our understanding of the structures chronology and perhaps shed light on the seasonality of activity within this upland dwelling, this will be carried out by Dr Sarah Elliott of Bournemouth University. A programme of further environmental sampling will explore past foodways, production and craft activities through parenchyma analysis which will be processed by Dr Cynthia Larbey, phytolith analysis and the analysis of archaeo-botanical macro remains by Nicholas Cullen of Stanford University.
Walkover survey, conducted by Dr Michael Given and our students, will focus on the upland landscapes of the Eastern passes in Glencoe, around Lairig Eilde, including around Allt Coire Meannarclach, and Lairig Gartain. This will explore the management of upland resources such as grazing and hunting within this part of the Glen which is known to have been a medieval royal hunting forest. An auger survey will also be carried out on Rannoch Moor near the River Etive in order to identify a suitable location for coring - to reconstruct vegetation and climate in the early modern period in this landscape.
Elizabeth Robertson, Dr Gareth Beale and Dr Nicole Smith will be running our digital and creative media strand of the field school, with students contributing in the first week to the design of an engaging installation for public audiences with soundscape, storytelling and film making. In the second week students will work with the Curators and collections of the Glencoe Folk Museum to design a new piece of interpretative media for the museum.
A public open day will be held at the National Trust for Scotland visitor centre on Saturday 12 August which will feature the creative installation designed by our team in the reconstructed 17th century turf house as well as an artefact handling table, and family craft activities. Site tours will be available on Thursdays 10 and 17 August facilitated by the National Trust for Scotland rangers. Members of the local community have also been invited to join our excavation team during the field season.
You can follow along with this field work and check out the research projects behind it on our research group page and blog or on twitter at #Glencoe2023.
This project has been supported by our local partners, the National Trust for Scotland Glencoe and Dalness, and Archaeology teams and the Glencoe Folk Museum team.
First published: 8 August 2023
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