ACFA members contribute to other projects one of which is the Hidden Heritage project based on the area between Tarbet and Arrochar.
This high profile community excavation has been organised by The Morlaggan Trust with Sue Furness and Fiona Jackson and with the assistance and supervision of professional archaeologists, Heather James, Claire Ellis and Roddy Regan.
The site, on the north-east shore of Loch Long and first recorded in the McFarlane manuscripts in AD1514 and consistently occupied until its abandonment by c.1916- is set in a a highly dramatic landscape of massive erratics, the visible ruins consisting of houses, enclosures and field systems.
An EDM survey of the site was carried out by ACFA members Ian Marshall and the late Bruce Henry.
The four week long excavations indicated the occupational complexity of use and interpretation which is now increasingly recognised in deserted settlement investigations.
Please contact Sue Hothersall for further information.
After spending twenty years walking the farmlands of Eaglesham Parish, 17 Occasional Papers have been completed. The final paper concentrated on the central area of the village itself the ‘Orry’ and its cotton mill. These were enjoyable years and many friendships were formed with the local farmers. We trudged through rain, hailstorms and sleet but we also spent days under glorious sunshine. Features surveyed took in all periods from the Bronze Age through to the Post Modern. Burnt mounds, Bronze Age cairns, Bronze/Iron age enclosures, deserted ruinous steadings, industrial buildings through to the present day were among features found and surveyed. The initial reason for field-walking, and ultimately surveying many sites in the parish, was to record features on the land before they disappeared due to their proximity to the south side of Glasgow and encroaching development. Over the years the South Orbital Road has been built through part of the farmlands, bridges and buildings have disappeared and fortunately these have been recorded before their demise. The Occasional Papers record details of the earliest cartographic evidence, historical and genealogical evidence from the Poll Tax Rolls of 1695 and old farm Rental Records etc. Many of the farmers allowed us to use old family photographs showing farming practices and machinery used in earlier times. We are now attempting to bring this information together in a book bringing out the most interesting accounts of our fieldwork.
ACFA’s first report on a settlement in Raasay was published in 1995 and we returned annually (except 2001 – Foot & Mouth restrictions) until the final survey in 2009 . A group of volunteers surveyed for a week and each year teams recorded the remains of an abandoned settlement while others field walked the surrounding area recording what they found beyond the settlement boundaries. The archaeology on Raasay is plentiful and varied, ranging from the Mesolithic through the pre-historic and early historic periods to industrial archaeology connected to the early 20th century iron mines. The Association eventually completed the survey of the whole island to provide a record of life and land use through the millennia.
Since a survey was undertaken in 1990 of the deserted township of Tirai and the immediate surroundings in Glen Lochay, ACFA has continued to survey parts of the Glen as well as the village of Milton of Lawers on Loch Tay side. Recent work has focussed on high shieling sites.