From Scotland to Tanzania
Tropical temperatures, mangroves and coral reefs: at first glance, it might be hard to see similarities between the shores of Scotland and the Indian Ocean coastline. However, our recent trip … Continue reading
From stones to bones: studying Scottish coastal change with SCAPE and Dynamic Coast
Eroding coastal heritage sites documented by volunteers through SCHARP are valuable because they are based on field observations so are true records of what is actually happening at the coast. … Continue reading
Mesolithic oaks to Mulberry Harbours – 8,000 years of history along the Solway Firth
One of the joys of coastal archaeology is that it encompasses sites of all types and periods. A recent recording visit to three stretches of the Solway coast with the … Continue reading
Revealing the post-medieval landscape of Higgins Neuk
“What you think you will find is not what you find. That ought to be an axiom in archaeology.” (Ben Okri, FT Magazine October 19, 2018) After decades of research had … Continue reading
Picts and the Wemyss Caves
The nation of the Picts, the Roman-named ‘painted ones’, or possibly the Latin form of a forgotten native name, emerged from the tribal societies of late Iron Age Scotland through … Continue reading
“Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay…”
“Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay! Alas! I am very sorry to say That ninety lives have been taken away On the last Sabbath day of 1879, Which will … Continue reading
Exploring the Clyde with Britain at Low Tide
This week, Channel 4’s Britain at Low Tide comes to Scotland to explore the archaeology of the Clyde…here we give you a bit more about one of the stories that … Continue reading
Britain at Low Tide – Behind the Scenes
The second series of Britain at Low Tide (Channel 4) features two episodes filmed in Scotland, and the programme is a great opportunity to show off some of our stunning Scottish coastal archaeology. … Continue reading
Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk: A Model of Volunteer Involvement in the Research and Management of a Threatened National Resource
This article was originally written for the January 2018 edition of the Society of American Archaeology’s magazine the Archaeological Record, and is reproduced here so that non-members can read it. … Continue reading
Uncovering the hidden heritage of Higgins Neuk
Last month saw us return to Higgins Neuk for our third season of investigation. Building on 30 years of historical research by John Reid, we were on the hunt for … Continue reading
A medieval Royal dockyard at the Clackmannanshire Bridge?
If you crossed the Clackmannanshire Bridge one weekend in early October, you might have seen clusters of people, conspicuous against the green and brown of the salt marsh in yellow, … Continue reading
Submerged forests and fishing heritage in the Western Isles
In May, we were happily again in the Western Isles discovering new places with new friends and revisiting familiar sites with old ones. We were lucky to spend time on … Continue reading
Pettycur’s 17th century storm-wrecked harbour revealed
In October 2015, shifting sand at Pettycur beach near Kinghorn in Fife revealed the outlines of a stone structure on the beach. The site is well-known locally. A cannon was … Continue reading
Storms reveal a shipwreck burial, a new broch and a wheelhouse in Channerwick, Shetland
We start our story in December 2012, when winter storms exposed a male human skeleton awkwardly squashed into a too small grave at the foot of the coast edge in … Continue reading
A broch blog
Brochs are amongst the most spectacular of eroding coastal archaeology, and in the course of SCHARP, we have seen and recorded quite a few of them. Many thousands of these … Continue reading
Recording Loch Ryan’s flying boat base, RAF Wig Bay
The RAF Wig Bay ShoreDIG got underway in March with the survey of the remains of the flying boat base. Set up in 1942, this was Britain’s main wartime base for … Continue reading
Wemyss Caves 4D continues…
The Wemyss Caves are once again at the centre of a digital whirlwind. Thanks to funding from Fife Council, Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund, teams from the York … Continue reading
Findhorn Bay Zulus
Scattered along the Culbin edge of Findhorn Bay lie the remains of at least 35 large wooden fishing boats. These are extremely rare survivals of the once common mighty Zulu … Continue reading
A blog post from Uist – the view from SCHARP volunteers.
The visits to Uist by team members from the SCHARP and ACCORD project to carry out training in their respective surveying techniques a few weeks apart in the early autumn … Continue reading
Remembering the Flying Boat Base at Wig Bay, Loch Ryan
The latest ShoreDIG at Wig Bay, Loch Ryan, has its roots at the start of the SCHARP project. It was nearly two years ago that the SCHARP team first visited … Continue reading
