P67 at Port Ellen have been recreating a letter from the time of Dunyvaig castle. They had to imagine a letter that might have been written and had a seal attached. This is because there was a seal from 1593 discovered at this years dig at the castle; seals were used with wax to seal letters to make them official. We have been using a seal in class to add to our letters, which we have aged using cold tea. We melted wax in a spoon over a candle and then used a tree of life seal to imprint in the wax. We think they look very authentic!
On Wendnesday 29th August we went on a bus to go to Finlaggan. When we got there our class was the first to go and see all of the old buildings and island in the middle of the Loch. When we were finished outside we went inside to see a lot of old things that the Lords of the Isles would use and other things they used in the medieval times and the family tree of one of the familys that lived there and facts about Finlaggan. When we were done that we got back on the bus but the bus was leaking oil so we had to drive to mundells yard to get a new bus and came back to school.
On the 20th of August P6/7 went to Dunyvaig castle. First we got our water proofs and welly boots and got on the bus to the castle up at Laguvulin. We stopped at the path and walked down a hill where we saw the castle. At the end of the hill there was a big grass hill that was slippery but luckily nobody fell. When we went down we met Darko Markovic who gave us a tour. He showed us a big rock with a hole that someone carved. We all tried to find out what it was some people thought it was to wash their hands.
On Monday 20th August we went to Dunyvaig. We met Darko Markovic who showed us around the site. First he showed us a burned down house, which they said might have been used for fighting.
On Monday 20th August Port Ellen Primary School went to Dunyvaig to do an archaeological dig. So our school went in separate groups to the dig and we all found something cool but very common to find like rainbow colored slate, quartz and mortar to hold the stone from the castle together. When digging up the trenches you would be very uncomfortable because you’re kneeling on rocks. We used trowels and shovels and cleared a level. It was interesting.
On Thursday 23rd March primary 5/6/7 walked to the ruins of Kilbride Chapel in order to survey it as part of the Islay Heritage Schools Project. For this project all the schools on Islay visited the Giant’s Grave earlier in the year and then worked with Reading University to choose a monument close to their school which they would then adopt and survey to find out more about it. Port Ellen’s site was Kilbride chapel and they surveyed the site using geophysics, archaeology photography, scale drawing and by making a documentary.
Rob showed us how to do the geophysics; there was machine and that went into the ground with electricity to see if they could find anything else about the land around the Chapel. The geophysics worked by sending an electrical current through the ground and if there was a higher reading then there was a rock under the ground this is because it takes more energy to get through the rock. If there was a lower reading that means that there would of been water because it didn’t use lots of energy to get through it. To use the geophysics you would stick both spikes into the ground and wait for a beep then move onto the next spot a certain distance away. We were all glad that people from the University Of Reading to come over and help us as they were very interesting and taught us lots. The data we gathered from the geophysics will actually be used in the final report on the site which is very exciting.
We were also doing archaeology photography with Alex. Before you take the picture you have to remember two things. The first thing to remember is you need to put the measuring stick onto where you are taking a picture of so you have a scale to know how big the things in the photo are, and you have to remember to use the right size measuring stick. The other thing to remember is to put a chalkboard with the sites name, where it is, what it is and what direction it is taken from. You also need to put a north arrow pointing to north. You have to fill in a register after taking a picture. You have to write the site name and the description from the chalkboard, what direction it was from and lots more. This is so that people in the future know what it was about. The site name was KIL17 for Kilbride chapel in 2017. We enjoyed taking accurate photos.
We were also did photography and filming and you had to put up a big 5m pole to sit the camera on and you have to make sure that the camera is screwed on properly so it won’t fall off. The archaeologists helped us with all of this. We also made a documentary and it was about what we were doing at Kilbride Chapel and we had to use a radio microphone to record. Showing us how to do things properly is one of the reasons Islay Heritage is so good.