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Starts: 10:00
Ends: 16:30
Unfortunately this event has had to be cancelled
A treasure hunt through Fort William, themed around archaeology, for children 12 and below to partake in. Children will need adult supervision as it''''s walking around Fort William. The sheet for the treasure hunt can be collected from the West Highland Museum, and a prize can be collected at the end.
Free/Donations welcome.
West Highland Museum
Phone 01397 702169
Email info@westhighlandmuseum.org.uk
https://www.westhighlandmuseum.org.uk/
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Starts: 10:00
Ends: 15:00
Learn how to create your own saw pierced silver pendant inspired by Picts/Stone Carvings in this 5 hour workshop with Aberdeen based Silversmith Megan Falconer. In this workshop, you will be shown how to saw pierce, file, texture, solder and make fixings for your own handmade pendant. Using a jewellers piercing saw, detail will be cut out of sheets of silver in order to create a design of your choice, whether you choose to be inspired by Pict stone carvings or create your own contemporary take on the vast inspiration. Reference images will be provided and examples will be shown during the workshop.
You will leave the workshop with your own handmade pendant, on your choice of chain length. This workshop is suitable for complete beginners, however a good level of hand eye coordination/hand dexterity is helpful due to the hand tools used. Please also bring glasses if you need them for close up work, as the skills will require focusing on small areas.
This activity is for adults only, 16 years or older
Venue: Urquhart Castle
Cost: £20
Suitable for wheelchair access
Bring a packed lunch or you can buy lunch in the care
Bookings via HES website www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/whats-on/
Urquhart Castle (Historic Environment Scotland)
Phone 01456 450551
Email learning@hes.scot
www.historicenvironment.scot/
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Starts: 10:00
Ends: 16:00
The final season of community excavation at a well-preserved Iron Age roundhouse [MHG8263] with the Gairloch Museum, muddy fun for all! We would recommend that attendees wear steel-toe boots if possible, or if not possible, sturdy walking boots with high ankles. Attendees should also bring waterproofs and work gloves, and kneeling pads if they have them.
The event will also run later than the end of HAF up to the end of Sunday 16th October at 16:00. Toilet and welfare facilities are provided by the Gairloch Museum a 2 minute walk away, but are not provided directly on site.
Meet at Gairloch Museum
Free / donations welcome
Children welcome if with adult
Dogs welcome if on lead
Bring a packed lunch
Level 1 walk
Bookings essential to:
Gairloch Museum
Phone 01445 712287
Email events@gairlochmuseum.org
www.gairlochmuseum.org
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Starts: 10:00
Ends: 16:00
Join our blacksmith and hear about the essential role that the smith had in castle and community life. Learn about the evolution and mystery of Smithing from the Iron Age onwards when it was possible to pull a ‘sword from a stone’. Hear some of the fables told around the glowing forge about the Gods, Goddesses and famous smiths that appear in folklore.
Venue: Urquhart Castle
Cost: Free with entry to the castle. Book entry in advance to guarantee entry
Family event. Children welcome if with adult
Suitable for wheelchair access
Booking to castle recommended to guarantee entry.
Urquhart Castle (Historic Environment Castle)
Phone 01456 450551
Email learning@hes.scot
www.historicenvironment.scot/
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Starts: 10:30
Ends: 15:00
Calling Young Archaeologists! Our Archaeology Pit has been newly refurbished, so you get hands on and have a go at digging. You will uncover Pictish and medieval features and find lots of exciting artefacts on the way. Children must be supervised by accompanying adult. Only 3 children in the pit in each 30 minute session. Sessions can be booked online – recommended but not essential. Children and adults are welcome to visit the museum after the session.
Children must be supervised by an adult
Cost: £2 / child; Accompanying adult: £5 (up to 65 years) or £4 (65+ years).
Bookings via the booking form on our website https://www.tarbat-discovery.co.uk/booking-form-childrens-archaeology-pit
Tarbat Discovery Centre
Phone 01862 871351
Email admin@tarbat-discovery.co.uk
www.tarbat-discovery.co.uk/
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Starts: 10:30
Ends: 12:30
A guided walk by Chris Robinson around Cow Hill and finishing at the Craigs burial ground in Fort William, which served local townspeople and the Garrison of Fort William.
Meet behind Lochaber Leisure Centre, Fort William
Free to members of West Highland Museum; £2 for non-members
Children welcome if with adult
Level 2 walk
Bookings, preferably by phone, to:
West Highland Museum
Phone 01397 702169
Email info@westhighlandmuseum.org.uk
www.westhighlandmuseum.org.uk/
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Starts: 11:00
Ends: 16:00
On our Heritage in Action day on 13th October a variety of traditional crafts and skills are available for the visitors to watch and sometimes join in. The special activities are closed for lunch between 1 and 2pm. The museum is open throughout the festival, 10:30-4pm. The Township is open as a reconstruction of the abandoned Township at Easter Raitts.
Venue: Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore, PH20 1AY
Entry by donation
Children welcome with adult
Suitable for wheelchair access
Booking not needed, but if any questions, ask for Liz English when contacting by phone or email
Highland Folk Museum
Phone 01349 781650
Email highland.folk@highlifehighland.com
www.highlifehighland.com/highlandfolkmuseum/
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Starts: 13:30
Ends: 14:30
Walk across the Culloden Battlefield with one of Culloden's Engagement team. This hour long tour will take you through the archaeological features of the field and explore new discoveries.
Meet at: Culloden Battlefield
Cost: details on website
Children welcome if with adult
Level 1 walk
Bookings via website to:
Culloden Battlefield (National Trust for Scotland)
Phone 01463 796090
Email Culloden@nts.org.uk
www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/culloden
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Starts: 14:00
Ends: 15:30
In this wee introductory session we'll help you discover the basics of geocaching, from installing an app on your mobile device to creating a great geocache. Please bring your own mobile device (smartphone/tablet). WiFi will be available. Family session, although young adults may be able to attend unaccompanied.
Venue: Highland Museum of Childhood, Strathpeffer
Free / donations welcome
Children welcome with adults
Suitable for wheelchair access
Booking essential to:
Highland Museum of Childhood
Phone 01997 421031
Email curator@highlandmuseumofchildhood.org.uk
www.highlandmuseumofchildhood.org.uk
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Starts: 17:30
Ends: 19:00
NOTE: This talk will now be online only
On New Year’s Day 1919 HMY Iolaire struck rocks close to the entrance to Stornoway harbour on the isle of Lewis and sunk with the loss of over 200 men. The vast majority were service personnel returning to the Outer Hebrides at the war’s end. To lose so many men was a huge blow to island communities who would have been, in a traditional economy, heavily reliant on their input and support. It is reasonable to say that this disaster impacted on every household on Lewis especially. There is equally no doubt that this impact, when coupled with Spanish Flu, T.B., and the mass emigration of the 1920s, resonated both emotionally and materially across the rest of the century. Indeed, only since the last quarter of the twentieth century has there been open discussion and commemoration of the disaster within the community.
Our project, which asks why silence was the main form of coping and recovering from this collective trauma, has brought together researchers at the Centre for History, UHI, and the Iolaire Centre – an island-based organisation established to create a heritage centre which tells the story of the Iolaire tragedy and the consequences which flowed from it. Our aim is to assess long term impact and discern the ways in which people coped with, remembered and commemorated the disaster. In short, we explore the socio-cultural legacy of the disaster.
This is a long term project and we have just completed our first year of research. This talk by Dr Iain Robertson and Professor Marjory Harper will, therefore, offer our initial findings, set these in the wider context and outline what we hope to do next.
online
Free
Booking from UHI Centre for History website
UHI Centre for History
Email history@uhi.ac.uk
www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/centre-for-history/history-talks-live/
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Starts: 19:00
Ends: 20:30
In June 2022, Clyne Heritage Society hosted an archaeological excavation of a longhouse at Greeanan, in Strath Brora (MHG32074). This talk outlines the findings.
Amongst its inhabitants was the Rev Walter Ross, Minister of the parish of Clyne from 1776 to his death in 1825. It was his one and only appointment.
There are various stories, mostly unfavourable, about him, one of which being that he was more interested in animal husbandry and agrarian practices than preaching. He took a tack at Greeanan, and spent summer months there, preaching to the local population and ignoring his flock nearer Brora! He knew, and helped, Donald Sage, of Wilkhouse fame and is mentioned more than once in his Memorabilia Domestica book, notoriously for his assistance in hiding smuggled spirits in his church!
Later inhabitants were newlyweds 79-year-old John Mathieson and 27-year-old Isabella Baillie!
Venue: Brora Community Centre (rear of Brora Primary School)
Free / donations welcome
Children welcome if with adult
Suitable for wheelchair access
Clyne Heritage
Phone 01408 621338
Email nicklindsay@btinternet.com
Clyneheritage.com
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Starts: 19:30
Ends: 21:00
Online talk by Dr Carolyn McNamara. Bookings via Eventbrite
The Monastery of Applecross was founded in 673 by a monk from Ireland in Pictish territory. This talk will look at the evidence for cultural mixing between Gaelic and Pictish cultures apparent in the monastery's history and its connections to both Bangor monastery in the north of Ireland and Rosemarkie, on the Black Isle. Those curious about archaeology, history, art, or place-names will find something to sink their teeth into.
Dr McNamara completed her PhD in Celtic at the University of Glasgow in 2021. Her doctoral studies focused on early medieval monasteries and monastic networks in the west of Scotland, including Applecross, Lismore, and Tiree and their connection to the monastery at Bangor in the north of Ireland. She is in her 6th year working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the department of Celtic and Gaelic at the University of Glasgow and is the founder and managing director of My Academic Family, a non-profit which provides support to first-generation university students in the UK.
