Welcome to Scottish Archaeology Month (SAM)!
Taking place every September and building on more than 30 years of success, Scottish Archaeology Month is the biggest annual celebration of Scottish heritage, history and archaeology.
Scottish Archaeology Month 2026
The Scottish Archaeology Month 2026 Events Programme is now live and can be viewed here
European Archaeology Days (EAD) 2026
This year SAM again contributed events to the EAD 2026 Programme.
We hosted 4 online talks for EAD 2026. Each talk focussed on the EHD theme of Heritage at Risk.
Talk 1: Heritage at Risk – Lucy K Neville, Museum Development Manager – Climate & Nature from Museums Galleries Scotland
Talk 2: Rock Art at Risk: What Future? – Dr Joana Valdez-Tullett, Wessex Archaeology and Durham University
Talk 3: Eroding Heritage- Managing the Unmanageable – Prof. Tom Dawson, University of St Andrews and The SCAPE Trust
Talk 4: Saving Swandro from the sea; a multiperiod site in Orkney – Dr Julie Bond and Dr Steve Dockrill, University of Bradford
To watch recordings of these talks please visit our YouTube channel
You can find out more about EAD 2026 here.
International Archaeology Day (IAD) 2026
IAD is organised by the Archaeological Institute of America and Archaeology Scotland is now a collaborating organisation as part of IAD. We are looking to develop this relationship further as part of the annual SAM events calendar.
Last year SAM hosted two online talks as part of IAD 2025. These are available to watch on our YouTube channel.
A bit of background to SAM
SAM is a national festival celebrating Scotland’s diverse and unique heritage.
It forms part of European Heritage Days, a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission that encourages people to interact with their history and archaeology and celebrates shared European cultural links and heritage.
SAM and Doors Open Days, coordinated by the Scottish Civic Trust, form Scotland’s contribution to European Heritage Days.
European Heritage Days sets a theme every year which we encourage our event organisers to incorporate into their SAM events.
For 2026, the theme is “Heritage at Risk – Revive, Resist, Reimagine”
EHD produces a brochure on its theme every year to provide ideas for events which could incorporate this theme. A link to this year’s brochure is below:
EHD Heritage at Risk Theme Brochure
SAM’s Ethos
The ethos behind SAM is to get people involved in their local and national archaeology, history and heritage and to make this accessible to all. All events in the SAM Programme are either free or low cost and are a mixture of in-person and online events. Our events range from archaeological digs and exhibitions to guided walks, art installations, reenactments and talks and cover the whole of Scotland’s geography from the Outer Hebrides and Western Isles to Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders, and all the areas in between. There should be something for everyone wherever you are based and if you are a visitor to Scotland, you will have a chance to learn more about this country’s past and cultural heritage.
Collaboration
We work with many other heritage organisations to maximise the public’s exposure to archaeology, heritage and history.
As well as working closely with Doors Open Days, we also collaborate with the East Lothian Archaeology and Heritage Fortnight, Highland Archaeology Festival, Art Walk Porty, The Scottish Geology Festival, and Scotland’s Community Heritage Conversations.
In 2026 we are delighted to be working again with the Orkney Archaeology Festival who are hosting their second of many festivals.
If you run an organisation or a festival which you think could link nicely with SAM, we would love to hear from you to discuss how we can collaborate. Please email sam@archaeologyscotland.org.uk so we can start the conversation.
We also collaborate with and support The Council for British Archaeology who host their own Festival of Archaeology in July each year and run the Archaeological Achievement Awards.
Contact us: sam@archaeologyscotland.org.uk
Follow Scottish Archaeology Month on Twitter: @ScotArchMonth
SAM is funded by Historic Environment Scotland.
