Between the 24th June and 8th July a team from the National Trust for Scotland, University of Glasgow and Archaeology Scotland were out in the field exploring the archaeology of Glencoe, one of Scotland’s most famous glens. This is the teams third season of excavations and surveys in this landscape, and the second season working at the settlement of Achnacon (or the ‘field of the dogs’).
The project aims to explore how life changes in Glencoe in the 17th and 18th centuries as climatic changes through the ‘Little Ice Age’, political events such as the 1692 massacre and Jacobite wars, and eventually clearance radically reshaped this landscape. At Achnacon we have investigated an 18th century byrehouse, a platform, corn drying kiln, two kailyards and an area of rig and furrow, and two 17th century byrehouses, one of which belonged to a tacksman and one to a tenant based on the status of the pottery recovered within. In 2023 we excavated the 17th century summerhouse or hunting lodge of the MacDonald chiefs in Gleann Leac na Muidhe (or the ‘glen of the slab of the milkchurn’) and discovered the ‘Glencoe Hoard’. From these investigations we have been able to paint a picture of a connected landscape in the 17th and 18th centuries with imported pottery and luxury goods from England, Continental Europe and the Americas forming part of how status, power and identity were expressed across the strata of Glencoe society. Through exposing these connections we can challenge the idea that these landscapes and their communities were once backwards, isolated or marginal.
This season we were joined by the NTS Archaeology volunteers, as well as visiting and local volunteers, archaeology students from across Scotland and beyond, P4-7s from Glencoe, Ballachulish, St Brides, Onich, Kinlochleven and Duror, and high school students from Kinlochleven, Lochaber, Mallaig and Ardnamurchan. We also welcomed many visitors from archaeology and historical societies across the country. With the help of our team of students, volunteers and local young people we were able to explore this settlement in great depth, opening up large trenches over the tacksmans house identified in 2024, and carrying out programmes of elemental analysis to compare community and household subsistence strategies from kailyards and areas of rig and furrow. Some star finds this season included a large portion of a footed cauldron recovered from the kiln’s base, some exciting continental pottery and a series of ‘ritually’ closed hearths.
While in the field our survey team worked to contextualise the excavation site into its broader landscape context, mapping evidence for settlement up and down Glencoe, and highlighting the busyness of this landscape only a few centuries ago. Our creative media team also joined us in the field, creating films and interpretative artworks to engage visitors with this landscape’s stories.
To keep up to date with updates from the field, labs and studios, to find out about upcoming events and volunteering opportunities sign up to the projects mailing list: https://forms.office.com/e/dW4vS5SYZ6 or check out the website: https://glencoeandrannochenvirons.wordpress.com/
This project is co-directed by Dr Edward Stewart (Archaeology Scotland), Derek Alexander (National Trust for Scotland), and Dr Nicole Smith, Dr Lizzie Robertson, Dr Gareth Beale and Prof Michael Given (University of Glasgow), and supported by a broad team of specialists. Images (c) Cole Juckette
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Blog by Dr Edward Stewart
CVARF Engagement Officer, Archaeology Scotland