The poet Kate Campbell helped us source a fantastic library of aerial photographs of the Whiteadder area in snow. These were commissioned by a local group to support an objection on landscape and visual grounds to the proposed Fallago Rig wind farm. They were taken from a flight over the Lammermuirs after heavy snow in … Read More
29th Aug – 13th Sept 2020 An exciting opportunity to celebrate East Lothian’s heritage in new ways, and to safely explore historic buildings and archaeological sites, without leaving home! There is an exciting programme of over 60 events – from virtual guided tours, presentations and films to workshops, poetry, and music, all about the heritage … Read More
Landscape architecture duo ‘Sutherlandii’ have now completed a beautifully illustrated leaflet detailing a ‘Spring Foraging Walk’ along the Whiteadder river near Preston. You can download a low resolution version of the walk guide from here: http://whiteadder.aocarchaeology.com/foraging-routes/
Tuesday 5th of May 2020 would have been the 220th birthday of Dr George Henderson of Chirnside (1800-1860) – a country doctor whose writings are a treasury of local custom, tradition, story and rhyme. To mark the occasion we are hosting an online festival to bring together the history, archaeology and creative arts of the … Read More
In March, a small team set out to explore a possible new site: an anomaly in the LiDAR data (below) was interpreted as a possible cairn, so we headed out to investigate. The site is located on a promontory in Whiteadder Reservoir. However, assuming that our site is prehistoric, it would not have been on … Read More
During the first week of February, archaeologists and volunteers descended on the Bothwell Water Valley to undertake some targeted excavation of a previously unrecorded long building visible on the Whiteadder LiDAR survey. The building measures approximately 50m long x 7.5m wide and consists of low turf covered banks of at least 1m wide with fairly straight sides and rounded … Read More
In February, we headed back out into the field to explore a couple of sites, one in Abbey St Bathans and a second nearby, on the other side of the valley. AOC’s geophysical survey team came up from Leeds to conduct geophysical surveys, and to provide another opportunity for training – many thanks to everyone … Read More
Many thanks to everyone who braved the wintery January weather with us to take part in excavations on Bunkle Edge. Bunkle Edge is an 8km long ridge running broadly WSW-ENE between the Eye Water and Whiteadder, with a series of prehistoric forts and earthworks located along the summit of the ridge. We were exploring a … Read More
Many of you will know that all outdoor activities as part of the Whiteadder project have paused as a result of social distancing and lockdown measures now implemented to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. We did excavate the possible cairn site on the shore of Whiteadder Reservoir with a much reduced team last … Read More
The sound art duo Oor Scintilla spent a day at the end of November, in and around the Whiteadder valley capturing audio for a sound piece to be based on the project area. The river valley was flooded and impassable just south of the reservoir but they still managed to capture some good water and … Read More