Experience the thrill of uncovering our history
What exactly would drive eight otherwise sane and well balanced adults, registered voters one and all, to climb a misty hill – passing through tick-infested bracken, treacherous bramble tentacles while slipping and sliding over dead branches – to then spend all day on their hands and knees furiously scraping at the unyielding and unforgiving cold clammy Stirling soil? And why would they come back and repeat the exercise?
These questions ran through my mind the other week as I struggled up Scout Head, near Gargunnock, with eight brave and hardy volunteers to explore
Baston Burn.
It is a 2000-year old roundhouse with three-metre thick walls, probably related to brochs. And yet, if you have to ask, you will never know.
Archaeology is not glamorous; it’s certainly nothing to do with Indiana Jones although he’s clearly of Scottish descent as his dad is Sean Connery after all!
You will not find gold or treasure but you really cannot beat that thrill of exploring the unknown, revealing things that no one has seen for millennia contributing to the sum total of human knowledge, sharing an aim with similarly-minded people, making new friends, listening to bad jokes, eating soggy biscuits and drinking lukewarm coffee. Then there is the warm glow of sweat from a day’s honest labour and the aches that remind you that you did something different today.
Have I sold you on it or are you convinced that I’m not right in the head? The clincher either way is probably this picture which shows what we uncovered after 20 hours of toil – the face of the wall not seen for 2000 years.
So was it worth it? If it’s too much or indeed too little a return, don’t worry just keep reading the Observer and I’ll keep you posted but if it’s sparked something in your soul, an itch you cannot scratch, please email me, cookm@stirling.gov.uk, and come and see for yourself.