Scotland’s Rural Past Conference
20 June 2011
The success of an award-winning community engagement project was celebrated at Birnam Arts Centre and Blair Castle in Perthshire this weekend (18-19 June).
For the past five years, Scotland’s Rural Past (SRP) has inspired and trained local groups across the country to research and record their historic settlements and landscapes.
Supported by RCAHMS and shortlisted for Best Project at the British Archaeological Awards, SRP has encouraged thousands of volunteers – many of whom had little or no previous knowledge of Scotland’s historic environment – to embark on projects that have made a substantial contribution to our understanding and appreciation of the nation’s rural settlement history, and that will inform its future preservation.
Richard Oram, Professor of Medieval and Environmental History at Stirling University gave a keynote speech at the Conference, and in an evening event at Blair Castle, Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, congratulated the volunteers.
The Conference also saw the launch of the new SRP publication, Scotland’s Rural Past: Community Archaeology in Action. The book outlines the history and aspirations of SRP and showcases the work of a large number of the volunteer projects.
Talking about the new publication, SRP Project Manager Tertia Barnett said, “This book is dedicated to all SRP participants, whose enthusiasm has been at the heart of the project’s success. From discovering the remains of an early Christian chapel on Mull, to piecing together the lives of a community of illicit whisky distillers in a remote Strathconon glen, the many accounts of the volunteer projects come together to form a remarkable narrative of rural Scotland.
"Without the hard work and tenacity of the SRP volunteers, these stories would have remained lost and untold. In the spirit of SRP, much of the publication has been written by those participants, in their own words. It is a celebration of their achievements.”
On Saturday 18 June, a day Conference at Birnam Arts Centre featuring Professor Oram’s keynote speech, volunteer talks, project displays, poster sessions, a photo competition prize-giving and the SRP publication book launch, was followed by an evening event at Blair Castle. On Sunday 19 June two guided walks took delegates on an exploration of the archaeology of the Blair Atholl countryside.
