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Starts: 13:00
Ends: 14:00
Part of Highland Archaeology Festival of Online Talks organised by the Highland Council Historic Environment Team
Students will profile work in progress, including Susan Dyke (UHI) who is undertaking environmental work at a shieling in Caithness. Other talks to be confirmed, and will be posted here when available.
Online talk organised by Highland Council Historic Environment Team
Bookings via Eventbrite (link).
Highland Council Historic Environment Team.
Phone 077888 35466
Email info@archhighland.org.uk
www.highlandarchaeologyfestival.org
Further Details:
'Escape to the country: a palynological investigation of Shieling activity at Braehour, Caithness, Scottish Highlands'
Talk by Susan Dyke, University of the Highlands and Islands. This project will use pollen analysis from a core at Braehour, Caithness to investigate land-use history associated with groups of shielings over a period from c. cal AD 1500 to 1850. The study seeks to understand what the post-medieval economy (livestock, and/or arable farming, haymaking etc.) of these shieling sites was and what consequent impacts those activities had on the landscape (e.g. grazing, heath burning, establishment of woodland to shelter pasture, soil erosion). Historical documentation including map regression evidence will also be sought to compare and contrast with the palynological findings and takes forward previous research on the role of seasonal pastures in Scottish farming.
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'The weathering of Torridonian building stone in a climate changed future'
Talk by PhD student David McCaughie (U. of Stirling). Sandstones are important to Scotland’s heritage as a traditional building stone from the Neolithic to the present day and are particularly susceptible to weathering. This talk explores innovative weathering simulations that exposed culturally significant sandstone from Clachtoll Broch to predicted climate change futures within a controlled environment facility. Results from these experiments have generated new micro-scale insight into how Torridonian Sandstone will proceed to weather in the coming decades under markedly different climatic conditions.