The Caithness Broch Project and the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute team up to bring together a Festival of Archaeology.
There are more broch sites in Caithness than anywhere else in Scotland and yet few people outside of the archaeological community know about these massive, tower like Iron Age structures.
The Caithness Broch Project is a community led archaeological organisation which aims to promote the existence of broch sites, undertake community archaeology projects in Caithness and eventually re-create a replica broch as it would have appeared 2000 years ago.
If the funding required for the project is secured, the Caithness Broch Project and the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute will team up to organise The Caithness Broch Festival. This will be a year-long programme of heritage and archaeology projects for 2017, focusing on exploring the broch sites of Caithness.
The Caithness Broch Festival will provide opportunities for local people and visitors to the area to engage with local archaeology – for many, their first opportunity to do so – whilst conducting significant archaeological research.
The Festival aims to provide members of the public with training in basic archaeological techniques and will give volunteers the opportunity to develop skills in project planning, archaeological survey, field-walking, finds recognition, finds cataloguing, GIS and reporting, as well as basic excavation techniques.
The overall aim is for these activities to develop a skilled and engaged group that can develop and sustain archaeological projects within the county. Participants will also contribute to the wider understand of broch sites in Caithness, landscapes and present the results in a temporary exhibition at Caithness Horizons Museum.
For more information follow Caithness Broch Project on twitter and facebook.
And look at their website. Photographs by Chris Sinclair.