Society deves into past with archaeology expert

The speaker at Arran Historical Society’s October meeting was Derek Alexander, head of archaeological services at the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).

Derek split his presentation into three parts. Part one consisted of an overview of the trust’s archaeological work. The trust owns 76,000 hectares of ground and looks after 12,000 sites, simple and complicated, covering a wide range of periods from Mesolithic to Second World War plane crash sites.

Derek explained archaeology is ‘the understanding of the past by what has been left behind’. They carry out land surveys, physical and geophysical, and of buildings. Work is carried out to reduce the threat to sites by factors including animals, vegetation and the passage of time. The trust is active, promoting all of its sites, archaeology, battlefields, castles and gardens, sieges, islands, sea stacks, upland/wild land, estate, centres and vernacular buildings.

Guided walks, working with children and Thistle Camps, where volunteers work on a site for a week, are promoted through traditional and social media.

Part two concentrated on work carried out on Arran. In 2007, a survey was carried out on Brodick Castle and recently there was a laser scan.

A survey was done of the Second World War plane crash sites. In the 1980s, two hut circles were excavated for a week by Thistle Camp volunteers at Tormore. Trenches were dug uncovering late Bronze Age pottery, flint and Arran pitchstone.

In one, evidence of a fire resulting in a cow being burned was discovered. There is a great deal more to do in this area in the future.

In February 2017, a site at Coire a Bhradain was investigated. It looked as though there had been a circular building on the site. A Thistle camp was set up in May 2017. Two large doorway stones were discovered in two trenches. The hut circle had been built between two streams with an outside bank of stones.

The site can be seen on Google Earth. A test pit was dug next to one of the doorway stones. Aerial shots were taken and radiocarbon dating suggests with 95 per cent certainty that the site is Bronze Age, dating between 1429 and 1296 BC. It is now thought it was likely a seasonal hunting base.

On Arran recently, 1,000 new ancient sites have been discovered by airborne Lidar scan.

Part three concentrated on the work in Glencoe relating to Jacobite times.

Derek gave an overview of the massacre, then went on to say seven settlements from the time (1692) have been discovered throughout the glen.

At Actriachtan, eight buildings have been identified and excavation work was started in May 2018. Trenches were opened and artefacts, including coins and manganese mottled ware pottery from the mid 17th to 18th century, an iron lock from a box or dresser and glass and window glass, were found.

At present, the trust is not sure if these buildings were in existence at the time of the massacre as they seem to date from 80 years later.

Derek finished his talk by saying the NTS hopes to build a replica of one of these houses.

The meeting ended in the usual way with tea and a vote of thanks.

The last meeting this year will take place on Monday November 18 when Howard Wood will give a presentation on The Arran Fishing Festival and protection of the seabed.