Islay Heritage Schools' Project

The Islay Heritage School’s Project started in August 2016 with teachers and children from Bowmore, Port Charlotte, Keills and Port Ellen Primary Schools working in partnership with Islay Heritage and the archaeology team from the University of Reading. The aim of the project was to give the children first-hand experience of archaeological sites on their island, as well as fieldwork methods, and increase their understanding and enthusiasm for their local heritage.

PHASE ONE of the project was a visit to the excavation of the Neolithic chambered cairn Slochd Measach (Giant’s Grave) near Nerabus.  The four schools took turns to visit and experience all aspects of archaeological fieldwork, which was good preparation for the second part of the project.

PHASE TWO took place in March 2017, when each of the schools (Keills were joined by Small Isles on Jura)  adopted a nearby archaeological monument and worked with Islay Heritage archaeologists to undertake a topographic and geophysical survey.  Back in the classroom the children got to see the images from the surveys and then had a chance to imagine what the sites would have looked like in the past, creating artwork, gaelic poetry and reports on their monuments. 

Port Ellen primary school chose Kilbride Chapel while Port Charlotte School went to the prehistoric monument of Carnduncan Bronze Age Cairn. Keills School teamed up with the Small Isles School from Jura and surveyed the crannog at Loch nan Deala, while Bowmore School surveyed the probably chapel at Cill a’Bhulg.  A well attended exhibition of all the children’s work was then held at the Gaelic College on Islay.

PHASE THREE of the project started in August 2018, with the return of the archaeologist to the island to carry out a dig at Dunyvaig castle near Lagavulin.  This monument was once the naval fortress of the Lords of the Isles, and the remains are 16th Century, but could also go back far earlier to prehistoric times.  This year Port Charlotte, Bowmore and Port Ellen primary schools, along with students from Islay High School, are taking part in the dig.