News – ACFA

Recording Glasgow Museum’s Rock Art

ACFA member Ed Smith has recently completed the task of recording the rock art held in the collection of Glasgow Museums, using techniques developed by the now wound-up Scottish Rock Art Project including photogrammetry (3d photographic recording). See below for links to ACFA’s Sketchfab models.

Sketchfab Link	Sketchfab Title
https://skfb.ly/p7IL8	Rock Art, Bowling, A.1955.96.mb
https://skfb.ly/p7INw	Rock Art, Argyll, A.1958.43.a
https://skfb.ly/p7JSF	Rock Art, Low Mye, A.1955.96.714
https://skfb.ly/p7JTA	Cist Slab, Badden, A.1960.45
https://skfb.ly/p7JUD	Rock Art, Bowling, A.1955.96.lz
https://skfb.ly/psCYS	Rock Art, Argyll and Bute, A.1993.5.ix
https://skfb.ly/ptOYD	Rock Art, South Lanarkshire, A.2024.1.1
https://skfb.ly/psGJ7	Rock Art, Argyll, A.1958.43.b
https://skfb.ly/psGQZ	Rock Art, West Dunbartonshire, A.1955.96.ma
https://skfb.ly/psSxu	Rock Art, Jedburgh, A.1955.96.713
https://skfb.ly/psSAF	Rock Art, TEMP.21133
https://skfb.ly/psSBG	Rock Art, West Dunbartonshire, A.1955.96.ly
https://skfb.ly/psSJV	Rock Art, West Dunbartonshire, A.1955.96.449
https://skfb.ly/psSMq	Rock Art, Glasgow, 1902.78

Zoom Talk Series 2024

As a taster for the next season of Zoom talks in 2025 here are the talks we hosted last winter/spring.

Annual General Meeting, Nov 9 2024

The AGM on Saturday Nov 9 was a big success with good attendance by members. We are delighted to welcome Ken Mallard to the committee. We still have two vacancies to fill and I would urge members to consider whether you could give a little time to the committee.

Chairperson, Janie Munro, presented the annual report and Treasurer Jennifer Boag spoke to the previously circulated financial report.

Annual Report 2024 Download

ACFA Accounts 2023-24 Download

After lunch we enjoyed a wee update from Simon Davies about his work in South Uist. Dugie MacInnes gave a presentation covering the thirty years of work in Glen Lochay following the launch to members of the book In the Glen of the Dark Goddess. Elaine Black presented an intriguing mystery in Balquhidder.

brief update from South Uist Download

Next year has some exciting plans for ACFA including:

new training courses will be run in the spring
a small ‘hit team’ will be surveying on the isle of Ulva
in April (8th-11th) ACFA will be travelling to Rudha Fiola, a small island off Luing, to conduct a survey
another survey is planned for Tiree in August (23rd-30th)
fieldwalking in the Kilsyth Hills will recommence
surveys south of Glasgow will continue around Kittochside
collaboration with the Scottish Stonemasons Marks project will continue

The Island of Ulva

ACFA is sending a small band of hardy individuals in Spring 2025 to survey the prehistoric archaeology of the island of Ulva, which sits off the west coast of Mull. The sites lie 11km along a rough track from the available accommodation and access will be via a bumpy ride in a trailer towed by a quad bike. Here is a feature with a poignant name, photographed by Wendy Raine during a recent recce trip.

Fish trap, Starvation Row, Ulva

Rock Art at Kelvingrove

Over the summer ACFA carried on the task, begun during participation in Scotland’s Rock Art Project, of recording the collection of rock art held in Glasgow Life Museums’ collections at Kelvingrove Museum.

The rock art was recorded using ScRAP’s methodology and 3d images were produced which can be viewed on ACFA’s Sketchfab account via the following links.

https://skfb.ly/p7IL8

https://skfb.ly/p7INw

https://skfb.ly/p7JSF

https://skfb.ly/p7JTA

https://skfb.ly/p7JUD

Thanks to Glasgow Life Museums staff, particularly Jane Flint Curator of (Prehistoric) Archaeology, for arranging access and making this possible. Images on Sketchfab are reproduced courtesy of Glasgow Life Museums and Libraries Collection.