Archaeology Research

Explorations of the settlements of Glencoe from the Glencoe Field School 2024

By Edward Stewart and Elizabeth Robertson

This summer as part of our 2024 field school in Glencoe a team of staff and students embarked on a programme of fieldwork in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland to investigate the settlements of Glencoe and how these often-overlooked sites may be better presented to public audiences. This was the second season of the Glencoe field school, allowing us to build upon a previous season excavating in Gleann Leac-na-Muidhe at the Summerhouse of MacIain, a 17th century chiefly hunting residence, where the ‘Glencoe Hoard’ was uncovered, and carrying out surveys in the Eastern Lairigs of Glencoe.

This season the survey was led by Dr Michael Given, the media and engagement team by Dr Gareth Beale, Elizabeth Robertson and Dr Nicole Smith, and the excavations by Edward Stewart and Derek Alexander, Head of Archaeology for the National Trust for Scotland, with assistance from Amy Allardice, Kaitlyn Whitsitt, Megan Kidd and Samantha Bodiam, our amazing Senior Honours site assistants. With a team of undergraduate students, the experienced NTS archaeology team and a host of local volunteers we were able to carry out an ambitious programme of excavations and surveys around the settlement of Achnacon and produce some exciting new media for engagement along the Glencoe Greenway path network.

Our survey team set out to contextualise the settlement of Achnacon within its wider agricultural landscape, mapping out the pockets of rig and furrow cultivation which lie along the lower slopes of Meall Mor below the undulating head dykes which marked the boundary of the townships cultivated land. Further surveys ranging across the mouth of Gleann Leac-na-Muidhe and Eastwards towards Achnambeithach allowed us to contextualise the settlement of Achnacon in relation to its neighbours and understand how the land between settlements was managed for cultivation, grazing and other activities.

The excavation team focused on the cluster of structures south of the 19^th century farm of Achnacon which are all that survive of the earlier township. Our excavations here uncovered a fascinating sequence of occupations, abandonments and reoccupations through the excavation of two dwellings, while our kailyard test pitting, carried out with the help of local families as part of a ‘dig for a day’ event, and excavation of a row of cultivation rigs yielded a surprisingly complex stratigraphy with similar episodes of improvement, abandonment and reoccupation. A programme of soil science to be carried out with samples taken from these agricultural deposits should offer insights into the management of garden plots and cultivation within the settlement area, as will analysis of artefact scatters in these areas. Star finds from these excavations included a possible loom weight repurposed from a redware jug base, a copper-alloy sewing needle, and a series of spindle whorls and an impressive assemblage of glassware and ceramics.

Our Creative Media and Engagement team set out to produce new audio content responding to our investigations at Achnacon and the Glencoe Greenway which now connects that settlement to the NTS visitor centre, the ruins of Inverrigan and Glencoe Village. After a week of collecting audio recordings within the landscape, interviewing the team and storyboarding they set to work producing two pieces - one an informative, documentary-style piece on the process of excavation and survey, the other a more experiential piece about reimagining a crofting landscape in Glencoe. They then went on to develop these pieces for an installation in the NTS Glencoe visitor centre turf house for the Festival of Archaeology.

On the final Saturday of the field season we hosted the ‘Glencoe Archaeology Festival’ at the reconstructed turf house at the NTS Visitor Centre to share the exciting stories we have been uncovering. Our amazing students led artefact handling sessions with visitors discussing the interesting tales behind the assemblages from our 2023 and 2024 excavations, and relating these to wider stories spanning Glencoe, Scotland, Europe and the world! We also ran an experimental archaeology stall with wool and grain processing stations with the help of the NTS Archaeology team, and craft activities including mini-Bartmann jug making, print-making with plants, and mini-excavations. Derek Alexander from the NTS ran site tours throughout the day leading groups along the new path to Achnacon and Dr Michael Given ran storytelling sessions with artefacts in the atmospheric gloom of the turf house, and our media team performed their audio-installations for an audience for the first time.

We were lucky enough to have loads of visitors this season. Derek Hall (Pottery Specialist) who has been working with our assemblages dropped by to provide some amazing insights into this and last season’s materials before exploring the sites of MacIain’s Summerhouse and Achnacon. We were also joined by Dr Giovanna Vitelli (Head of Collections and Curatorial) and Steph Scholten (Director) of the Hunterian Museum for a site tour during which Giovanna generously shared her expertise in early modern glass. Jesper Ericsson (Curator of Numismatics) from the Hunterian also joined us for a few days and gave workshops to our students and the NTS team on the coins from the 2023 Glencoe hoard which he has been studying as part of our post-excavation team. Aris Palyvos, from Archaeology at the University of Glasgow dropped by to capture a series of drone photographs of the site and its setting for us early in the season, and we were also joined by Meike Maria van Lit, one of our PhD researchers, who provided the team with training in soil density sampling.

We also hosted visits from members of ACFA (Association for Certified Field Archaeologists) and NOSAS (North of Scotland Archaeological Society) who shared their wealth of experience investigating upland archaeology with our team!

Another surprise visit came in the form of the Kinlochleven Primary School who descended on mass for a site tour and artefact handling session as part of their day out with the NTS Ranger Team. The pupils were well prepared for the muddy conditions on site and were buzzing with questions about life in Glencoe in the past.

We were lucky enough to be invited to feature in a new documentary about Glencoe and the massacre of 1692 for History Hit and were joined on site by Dan Snow and his team to record the excavations in progress and stories from the Summerhouse of MacIain.

After we returned from Glencoe our students continued to showcase their admirable work ethic and determination, blowing through much of our post-excavation digitisation, artefact photography and documentation in just two days, and designing a new installation for the department display case!

Thanks are owed to our amazing team this season, our undergraduate students:

Hannah Baird, Lauren Blackburn, Erin Brunt, Freya Easthope, Oliver Kuo, Alexander McClure, Ethan Power, Rowan Tooze, Eva Miller, Wanhe Liu, Leonore Kitt, Isaac Norwood, Lucy Ankers, Samantha Bodiam, Sarah Longdon, Megan Kidd, Kaitlyn Whitsitt and Amy Allardice

The National Trust for Scotland Archaeology team:

Derek Alexander, Christine MacPherson, Jim Shearer, Ruth Loggie, Alistair Mackintosh and Thomas Warner.

Our volunteers:

Angela, Callum, Evi, Lex, Ursula, Anna, Ori, Bridget, Heather, Karen, Jay, Elane, Rhona, Ella, Irene, Camilla, Parris, James and Holly.

And all those who joined us on our dig for a day event, or dropped by the site and lent a hand!

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First published: 24 July 2024