Dunning: Part two!

I really am going to try to finish up the rest of my dig in this post. Like last year, they offered field trips on our days off. The first day off I went on a field trip of my own - to Huntingtower Castle and into Perth (as we stayed just outside Perth).

Approaching the castle.

Original painted ceiling.

Wearing a cape as I wandered through the castle.

Interesting hotel in Perth.

Carved faces on an old church (cathedral?) in Perth.

From the museum: medieval lace found in an excavation in the 1970s.

On the summer solstice a small group of us went to one of the other sites - Leadketty Farm where prehistoric excavations were being carried out - to celebrate the solstice.

Summer solstice. 

Beautiful barley fields. 

We had wee flags and danced about.

Kenny Brophy, the prehistoric expert & one of the professors in charge of SERF.

Look at that HUGE trench! Would you believe it was 10:30 at night? 

Some on-site photos from Dunning.

My trench!

Midsomer Murder moment: older folks coming into the churchyard to paint. It was wonderfully charming!

Steve Driscoll (in the red trousers) examining things in the trench. 

The second field trip - the Medieval one - I did go on, even though I'd been the year before. We wore capes again at Elcho Castle. Lovely!

Ewan Campbell showed this to me - a plant called mouse ear. 

Some of the lovely folks on the dig. Left to right: Cait, Kirk, David, Kelsi (glasses), and Erica.

Wild mountain thyme!

We had an open day for people in the community to see what we'd been up to. This is a small portion of the Victorian rubbish we dug through in search of traces of a medieval monastery. 

Clay pipes.

Ink wells.

We discovered that the 1st of July was St Serf's Day, so we decided we had better celebrate it. In Dunning, St Serf is known for saving the villagers by slaying a dragon. So Carolyn, Kirk and I made a dragon for the occasion. We made wee figures, too, of Steve Driscoll, Adrian Maldonado (who was in charge of our trench) & Ewan Campbell, and stuck them on the dragon.

Working hard on the dragon.

The dragon!

We put him up on a ranging rod on site. 

We thought we should slay the dragon & maybe even burn him, but Steve Driscoll was very reluctant to do so, and only pretended to slay the dragon.

Steve & the dragon. 

Things got very deep in our trench. A medieval wall was discovered just two days before the end of the dig.

Adrian finding out the line of the wall. 

Visiting the monument to Maggie Wall.

Last day of the dig! 

The end of dig costume party!

Dressing up as Steve Driscoll! 

Adrian glued bits of the midden to his shirt. 

Steve as St Serf.

Kelsi, Adrian & myself.