The Kennedy Monument
The Kennedy Monument in St Salvator's Chapel, St Andrews, is one of the most important funerary structures to survive from the Middle Ages in Scotland. Dating from the 1460s, it was built as a tomb for James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews (died 1465), who founded St Salvator's in 1450. It was selected for recording by RCAHMS because its stonework is in a particularly fragile state. Although parts of its structure have been damaged or are missing, the tomb is some 7.5m in height and is still highly impressive. Influenced by French sculpture of the period, it was designed like a miniature apsidal building, its intricate array of multi-faceted arches, vaults and canopies representing a serious challenge for recording.

In recording the complete monument photographically, the use of conventional oblique lighting techniques proved unsatisfactory due to the monument's highly complex and multi-faceted form. Instead, semi-oblique photography with softer lighting was used as an effective approach that allowed the intricacies of both the front face of the monument and of its interior spaces to be illustrated with optimum clarity. Detailed photography was carried out section-by-section, using directional lighting to bring out the full complexity of the sculptural forms.

With regard to scale drawing, it was determined that an elevation at a scale of 1:5 would allow the fine detail of the structure to be represented effectively. While RCAHMS staff have the necessary skills to undertake this type of graphic recording, the size of the structure and its extreme complexity would have necessitated several months of on-site recording, using scaffolding to provide access. Given that the chapel is used daily by students and staff of the University of St Andrews, and receives numerous visitors, this was not a viable option.

Another approach would have been to employ high-definition laser scanning. However, laser scanning requires highly specialized skills and equipment not currently available in RCAHMS, and an outside contractor would therefore have had to have been engaged. It would also have required scaffolding to be erected around the structure, increasing the risk of damage to its stonework. At a meeting with colleagues from English Heritage, photogrammetry was discussed as a possible alternative recording method. This is a remote sensing technique which allows extremely accurate plots to be created from a suite of stereo photographic images located using a precise framework of control points. The Metric Survey Unit of English Heritage, based in York, has the specialist skills and equipment necessary to undertake this work, and they generously agreed to take part in a joint exercise with RCAHMS staff.

RCAHMS surveyors established a very accurate set of control points by measuring precise three-dimensional coordinates for a number of temporary targets strategically placed on the monument. The monument was then photographed by the English Heritage photographer using a highly specialized metric camera and the resulting photographs were used to generate stereo images from which a very accurate line drawing was created.

Downloads

2-dimensional rendering of the Kennedy Monument as a PDF (773kb)

3-dimensional model as a PDF (4.6MB)

To view a PDF file you will need to have a copy of Adobe Reader on your computer. To view the 3-D file above, you will require version 8 at least.

If you do not already have a copy, it can be downloaded from Adobe's web site: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

The exercise was extremely useful in providing RCAHMS staff with insight into the particular technical requirements and potential of photogrammetry. The resultant digital representation of the Kennedy Monument, viewable in three-dimensions on computer, is an exceptional graphic record of an extraordinary structure.

RCAHMS is indebted to English Heritage for supplying the specialist equipment and expertise required to undertake this survey.

www.english.heritage.org.uk

Pentlands Range, Midlothian
An archaeological field survey assessment began in May 2005 and is being carried out in partnership with the Defence Estates, using the methodology developed for the survey of the Kirkcudbright Training Area. The Pentlands Range and Training Area takes in a sweep of hill ground and includes two fine examples of prehistoric earthworks: the fort on Castle Law and the palisaded settlement on Castle Knowe, a short distance to the north-east. More recent remains date to its use as a military training ground and comprise trenches, bomb craters and a rifle range.

Yarrows, Highland
Commencing in the late spring of 2004, this project focused on the landscape around the Loch of Yarrows, an area long recognised for its well-preserved prehistoric monuments. As well as a map of all the archaeological remains, at least ten monuments were selected for more detailed survey, while a programme of aerial reconnaissance across the survey area and the neighbouring landscapes supported the work undertaken in the field. The project was carried out in partnership with Caithness Archaeological Trust (www.caithnessarchaeology.org.uk), who received financial assistance from the Community Economic Development Programme. The results of the project will be used to promote the area, both locally and internationally.

Mingulay
In partnership with the National Trust for Scotland, an archaeological field survey was undertaken over the spring and summer of 2003. Over 450 structures were identified and, in addition, the cultivation remains and field banks were surveyed using a differential Global Positioning System. The upstanding archaeological remains include the recent crofting township in Mingulay Bay, pens, shelters and peat-stack stances outwith the head-dyke, extensive areas of lazy-bedding and remnant fields, banks and enclosures. Amongst the palimpsest of cultivation remains in the southern valley of Skipisdale, there are at least three massively built prehistoric roundhouses.

Kirkcudbright Training Area, Dumfries and Galloway
In partnership with the Ministry of Defence, field survey has recorded extensive and complex 20th century military remains, together with a remarkable cluster of neolithic cup-and-ring carvings, areas of post-medieval rig-and-furrow cultivation and a series of abandoned farmsteads and cottages.

A report outlining the main results of the survey and the techniques employed can be downloaded as a PDF file (4.10MB). To view a PDF file you will need to have a copy of Adobe Reader on your computer. If you do not already have a copy, it can be downloaded from Adobe's web site: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

Strath Don, Aberdeenshire
This project is now in its final stages with fieldwork complete and the drafting of site descriptions for the NMRS continuing apace. The range of sites included in the survey spans several thousand years, from spectacular recumbent stone circles to dramatic hill-top forts, from Pictish Symbol Stones to the forbidding walls of medieval castles, and from the quarries and consumption dykes of the Improvement period to the World War II pillboxes scattered along the coast.

Isle of Muck
The survey of Muck complements fieldwork already carried out on Canna (1994-6) and on Eigg, and in the longer term will form part of a publication on the Small Isles. The survey was undertaken in 2002 and involved the mapping and recording of all the sites and monuments on the island. More detailed plans of the key sites were also undertaken, including the Iron Age fort at Caisteal an Duin Bhain and the deserted township at Sean Bhaile (Keil).

Ben Lawers, Perth and Kinross
This project takes in the slopes of Ben Lawers and its satellite peaks, from their summits down to the shores of Loch Tay, and was conducted in partnership with the National Trust for Scotland, with the assistance of European Union funding; its aim was to provide a baseline survey for the multi-partner Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project (www.benlawers.org.uk). Extensive remains of farms, fields and cultivation of 18th and early 19th century date have been recorded, which, when viewed in conjunction with the abundant documentary evidence available, offer valuable insights into the changes in the Highland landscape during the Age of Improvement. Monuments of prehistoric date were also discovered, including a Neolithic chambered cairn and over one hundred 'new' cup-and-ring carvings.

Cardean Roman Fort, Angus
The site survey of the Roman Fort at Cardean (NO24NE 12) was undertaken in early March 2003. Data collected on the site will be used to generate a digital terrain model of the surface of the field within which most of the fort lies. It was prepared for the Cardean excavation report and is sponsored by Historic Scotland.

Traprain Law Environs Project, East Lothian
In partnership with the Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, this project is designed to study the Iron Age settlement landscape of the area around the fort of Traprain Law. RCAHMS' contribution is to provide transcriptions of a number of cropmark settlement sites previously photographed by the Aerial Survey team, which can then be compared with the results of geophysical survey and excavation undertaken by the University of Durham.