Neil Oliver’s new discoveries at Glencoe

Transcript

Thre speakers: Neil Oliver; Derek Alexander; Natasha Ferguson

Neil
The National Trust for Scotland cares for some of Scotland’s most treasured landscapes and often those places contain significant archaeological sites. 
I recently visited one such site in Glencoe with Derek Alexander, the Trust’s Head of Archaeology, and Natasha Ferguson, Lead Inventory Officer for Archaeology, to hear about the Achtriochtan settlement and recent discoveries that may be linked to the time of the Glencoe Massacre. 

Derek
We were coming out here to have a look at these 19th-century buildings and enclosures that you can just see where the trees are. 
And when we were walking past we had a quick look up and thought, having worked at Ben Lawers where we’d seen similar buildings, this looks like a turf building. 
So if you come up here I’ll show you … 

This is one gable end here. 
We’ve got a big stone in the wall, this is the wall line, and then you’re right in the entrance there. 

Neil
Right, oh yes, where it’s lower down. It’s a big structure. 

Derek
It is quite. So what’s that, about 12 metres long by about 5 metres wide? 

Neil
And so, did these come up from your excavation? 

Derek
Yes, so when we were digging in here in April we found, we didn’t get a lot of stuff, but we found bits of glass, bits of pottery, but most of them I think are of the right period. They’re not 19th century they’re probably earlier, which is good. That’s encouraging. 

Neil
So, it looks like broken crockery to me. 

Natasha
Some of the best dating material that you can get are ceramics and coins, and that’s some of the things you got from this excavation so that’s really helpful in trying to provide a good chronology of the site. 
So the earliest thing that you have is the magnese mottled ware; you can see the mottling and that dates to the end of the 17th/early 18th century, so that’s really good, that’s exactly what we want. 

Derek
That’s on the money for the date isn’t it? And it’s very fine that stuff, that’s what I noticed about it. 

Neil
So that could even, well hypothetically, that could have been in use at the time of the massacre. 

Natasha
And it’s a tankard as well so it’s something that would be used in a domestic setting, and actually it’s from Staffordshire as well, so it’s imported material … 

Neil
So it’s not locally made? 

Natasha 
No no, so that really connects, people are buying and using and wanting this kind of material. 

Neil
And it must’ve come up that road! Somehow or other. 

Natasha
Yeah, and then we have some slipware which is brown and cream slipware, and that’s where you have a red ware, brown fabric that has a brown glaze and white stripes as a decoration, and that dates around about the 18th/early 19th century, so again we’ve got a really nice chronology between the mottled magnese and the …

Neil
Is it only decoration or does it do something that makes it a better pot or a better plate? 

Natasha
Certainly if you’re glazing, if you’re going to the trouble of actually glazing ceramics, so you want to use them to hold liquid or water or some kind of food … 

Neil
So more watertight? 

Natasha
Exactly, yes. So it’s decorative but it’s also very practical. And the other thing that we got which is brilliant for dating is this coin, that you just found? 

Derek
It was in the enclosure, rather than in the house or outside the house; it was in the little yard in front of house 2. 

Neil
And it’s just an accidental loss? 

Derek
Yes, there was nothing else around it. 

Natasha
It’s a really nice coin to date because it’s a copper alloy turner or bodle which dates again to the late 17th/early 18th century. 

Neil
But again, possibly in circulation in this area at the time of the massacre. 

Natasha
Yes, absolutely. 

Neil
It’s amazing. 
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