Welcome to the new-look HTML version of the RCAHMS Newsletter! Feedback from our last, text-only Newsletter in May indicated that readers wanted to see more images and be able to browse over shorter text for each article. We've taken this into account by developing the present edition while, we hope, keeping the layout simple and easy to read. We're keen to find out what you think of the changes, so let us know by emailing the Newsletter at editor@rcahms.gov.uk with any comments or observations you may have.
Once you've had a chance to see what's happening at RCAHMS through the Newsletter, be sure to visit our website at http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/. Here you'll find more information on our new publications, exhibitions and survey projects, and also discover pathways which will take you directly into our online databases where you can search through our records and view more than 70,000 of our images online.
A special birthday for aerial survey
RCAHMS has been surveying archaeological and architectural sites from the air since 1976, which means that 2006 marks the 30th anniversary of this special perspective on the past. In thirty years of flying, over 100,000 images have been produced and many thousands of archaeological, architectural and industrial sites have been recorded across Scotland, many of them previously unrecorded. A new exhibition entitled "Life on the Edge' has been created to celebrate this fascinating aspect of RCAHMS work which gives an aerial perspective on the often dramatic relationship which exists between people and their environment by focusing on settlements 'on the edge' of land and water.
The archaeology of St Kilda
RCAHMS is planning a three-year partnership project with the National Trust for Scotland to map the archaeology of the main islands of the St Kilda group. This will build on an existing survey of the islands undertaken by RCAHMS in the early 1980s and will incorporate the results of a further two decades of archaeological survey and excavation, which have revealed a wealth of new information about the history of settlement on the islands.
Marching, measuring and mapping in the Highlands
If you have been close to Grantown-on-Spey over the past few weeks you may have spotted our archaeological field team at work on the Braes of Abernethy survey project involved in one (or all) of the above. The project aims to re-examine and re-document a substantial area of land and hope to add significantly to the record of archaeological sites which are present in the area.
Find out what they've been up to...
St Ninian's Cave Stone Inscriptions
Who founded Christianity in Scotland? Most people would answer 'St Columba' to this question, but the older and more shadowy figure of St Ninian actually has the stronger claim to be the Church's founding father, and his association with Whithorn has led to that area being a centre of pilgrimage for more than a thousand years. This tradition continues in the present day with the annual pilgrimage to St Ninian's cave, held on the last Sunday in August. This year, a new RCAHMS exhibition detailing the stone inscriptions in the cave was a focal point in the Catholic Chapel at Whithorn, where a Mass was said for pilgrims unable to to make their way to the cave itself.
Seeing back in time: the invisible burgh of Roxburgh
A new method of archaeological site survey made its first appearance in Roxburgh earlier this year when RCAHMS began a systematic rapid automated height data recording survey of the site of the former royal burgh using Global Positioning Satellite equipment. Working as part of the Roxburgh survey project, RCAHMS surveyors have now managed to survey half the site area, with the remainder of the survey due to be completed in the Spring of 2007.
See how the survey method works, and look at some of the first results...
Poetry from the Past
For the past three years, RCAHMS has been one of the partners involved with the Scottish Poetry Library in a series of poetry and architecture competitions. Working with primary and secondary schools, these have encouraged young people to respond creatively to elements of the built environment that they encounter around them in everyday life. This year's winners found inspiration in the grandeur of ecclesiastical building in Dumfries and in smaller scale burgh architecture at Prestonpans, but discovered a common, human element behind each.
Find out what inspired them...
New RCAHMS Publications
New Lanark
Recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001, the 'model village' of New Lanark is one of the jewels in the crown of Scotland's industrial heritage. A new RCAHMS publication detailing all the buildings in the New Lanark community has just been produced in association with the New Lanark Conservation Trust, and forms a complement to the earlier 2004 RCAHMS publication on the Falls of Clyde.
Scottish Collieries
The days of 'King Coal' may be long gone, but the development of the coal industry was a powerhouse for the Industrial Revolution in Scotland, and the legacy of its mines, buildings and working practices is a vital part of Scotland's industrial heritage. Miles Oglethorpe, RCAHMS Architecture & Industry Survey Manager, has been researching the final period of the industry for more than ten years, and the results of his work have just been published in Scottish Collieries: An Inventory of Scotland's Coal Industry in the Nationalised Era'.
Little Houses
This well-illustrated book tells the story of the 'little' houses in Scotland's small historic coastal burghs and their rescue through preservation projects initiated by the National Trust for Scotland. It highlights the key objectives and basic architectural principles of this restoration programme, and places it within the broader cultural context of the drive to preserve 'ordinary old homes' rather than elite cathedrals and palaces.
To subscribe to our newsletter please send an email to subscribe@rcahms.gov.uk . If you are already subscribed but no longer wish to receive our newsletter please send an email to unsubscribe@rcahms.gov.uk. Finally, if you have any suggestions for future newsletters or want to comment on this newsletter then please send an email to editor@rcahms.gov.uk