Kevin Grant | Historic Environment Scotland (original) (raw)

Papers by Kevin Grant

Post-Medieval Archaeology, 2022

GREEN OA Authors Copy This paper seeks to explore life during the post-medieval period in a sma... more GREEN OA Authors Copy

This paper seeks to explore life during the post-medieval period in a small part of the Ochil Hills in Perthshire, Scotland, and in doing so, demonstrates how landscape archaeology can uncover stories which reflect the complexity and nuance of life in the past. This narrow strip of land has been part of the Keltie estate since at least the 16th century. It includes a castle and policies close to the busy villages of Dunning and Auchterarder on the road to Perth, braes where an ever-changing patchwork of farming has left a palimpsest of human activity, and open hill grounds where few people now stray beyond the quad-bike tracks that cut across the landscape.
Drawing on a range of approaches, this paper explores the stories uncovered through a programme of landscape archaeology. This includes considering the dramatic changes and reformations that have shaped the landscape over recent centuries, histories of specific people and places - and the relationship between the two. It asks questions of the role of archaeology in telling these stories and considers how a variety of approaches can reveal a multitude of voices and narratives from the past.

Interdisciplinary approaches to a connected landscape upland survey in the Northern Ochils , 2019

The key to understanding a landscape is through its connections, which tie together people and en... more The key to understanding a landscape is through its connections, which tie together people and environment within and beyond that landscape and across many different periods. This is particularly true of the northern face of the Ochil Hills in central Scotland, which is characterised by dense networks of connections between lowlands and uplands, local and regional. To trace those connections we integrate the results of walkover survey, aerial archaeology, excavations, documentary analysis and place name analysis, revealing significant continuities and differences in the networks and relationships that have connected this landscape across time and space. Iron Age hillforts used their prominence and monumentality to guide people along very specific routes across the Ochils. Regular seasonal movements of cattle and herders in the medieval and post-medieval periods were closely related to the agriculture and settlement they encountered on the way: this interaction can be clearly seen in the elaborate intertwining of paths, braided cattle tracks, farmsteads and enclosures, most strikingly in the 18th century. Such intricate connections across the landscape are equally keyed in to the specifics of particular locations and to much broader networks and historical change.

Scottish Archaeological Journal, 2019

At the very end of the 18th century, economic circumstance and the capricious consequences of war... more At the very end of the 18th century, economic circumstance and the capricious consequences of warfare on the continent turned seaweed on the West Coast and Isles of Scotland into an important industrial resource. This resource was kelp: a glassy substance used in various industrial processes, particularly in the glass and soap industries. Chiefs and landowners in the west of Scotland were quick to take advantage of the economic opportunity it presented. The industry would have profound effects on the people who lived and worked in coastal communities. This paper seeks to outline a landscape archaeology of kelping as it was lived and experienced. It will draw on archaeological, documentary, and historical evidence, and will also consider Gaelic culture and oral tradition. Using a case study from Loch Aoineart, South Uist, the kelp industry will be considered in the context of an early 19th century Hebridean community

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 2018

The people of the Hebrides have long been associated with a heroic tradition of seafaring – the i... more The people of the Hebrides have long been associated with a heroic tradition of seafaring – the image of the medieval birlinn or galley has become emblematic of Norse and Gaelic power. Coastal communities in the 19 th century would have been familiar with this tradition as it was a common theme of the song and story which was a ubiquitous part of their lives. However, the waters around the Hebrides in the years around 1800 were largely the preserve of merchantmen or warships of friendly and enemy navies. Gaels who farmed the coasts of the Hebrides could have little influence over this largely English-speaking maritime world of international trade and global conflict in the surrounding seas, although it had profound and wide-ranging impacts on their daily lives. By drawing on a case study from Loch Aoineart, South Uist, this paper seeks to consider some aspects of how Gaelic-speaking coastal communities interacted with the sea. Whilst this article will serve as an introduction to some common archaeological features relating to post-medieval coastal life, it is intended to encourage archaeologists to consider the sea as part of a wider Gaelic cultural landscape. It will also argue that critical use of evidence for the Gaelic

The period of the 18th and 19th centuries was one of great change in the Highlands and Islands of... more The period of the 18th and 19th centuries was one of great change in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Improvement, the Jacobite Rebellions, and the Clearances transformed its communities and landscapes. These events have rightly been a focus of research. However, archaeological approaches have often sought simply to illustrate these processes, rather than create new narratives about life in the past. The resulting picture of the period can over-emphasise economic change whilst failing to reflect the richness and variety of everyday life. This thesis aims to suggest a new approach to the place and period, one which addresses matters often ignored in previous work. Whilst it has an archaeological sensibility, it draws on ideas from outside archaeology, such as landscape theory and on Gaelic oral tradition, an underused resource, to create a novel and broad-based approach to the period. An important part of the method is a synchronic approach that seeks to reconstruct the experience of the landscape at very particular times, engaging fully with the everyday experience of landscape rather than grand historical narratives. Two Hebridean case studies are utilised: Hiort (St Kilda) and Loch Aoineart, South Uist. Thematic discussions drawn from these landscapes are intended as critical assessments of the efficacy of the approach, as well as new narratives about life in the past in themselves. The thesis concludes by comparing the two case studies, reflecting on the merits of the approach, discussing recurrent themes in the work, and considering its wider context and implications. It is concluded that taking a novel approach to the case study landscapes can create narratives that often contrast or expand upon those produced by previous scholars, allow for a more detailed consideration of everyday life in the period, and open up new areas for archaeological enquiry. The extensive and critical use of evidence from Gaelic oral tradition is highlighted as crucial in understanding life and society in the period. The thesis questions the utility of grand historical narratives as a framework for archaeological study of post-medieval Gaeldom and suggests that our understanding of the past is best served by approaching the evidence in ways which allows for many different voices and stories from the past to emerge.

SUMMARY: This article examines the evidence for engagement with the rural post-medieval landscape... more SUMMARY: This article examines the evidence for engagement with the rural post-medieval landscape
using two national case studies: Wales and Scotland. The issues reflected in these case studies are
indicative of the wider challenges for archaeologists and professional practitioners alike. The article
recognizes that landscape is not just about geographical place, but an archaeological theoretical
framework. It proposes that Post-Medieval Archaeology monographs and conference sessions specific
to landscape could help to tease out themes that address the big questions of the post-medieval world
— capitalism, modernity and improvement — but also take account of agency, identity and meaning.

Pre-publication issue uploaded here, courtesy of Post-Medieval Archaeology

The St Kilda World Heritage Site is an archipelago of four islands lying about 65 km off the Oute... more The St Kilda World Heritage Site is an archipelago of four islands lying about 65 km off the Outer Hebrides in northwest Scotland. In the middle of the nineteenth century, while undertaking a bathymetric survey in HMS Porcupine, members of the Royal Navy became involved both in the charitable assistance of the St Kildan community and in the pursuit of archaeology and ethnography. One product of this activity, a plan of the principal settlement of St Kilda made in1860 and now held in the National Museum of Scotland, has proved a key
resource for archaeologists interested in architectural and agricultural aspects of Improvement on the archipelago. In this paper, the plan is contextualised within the interests of the Navy on St Kilda, thus distinguishing it from contemporary
estate and national surveys. By examining the plan itself, and making a close study of family history and archaeological evidence, the authors argue that it depicts a complex and dynamic landscape which stands in contrast with popular narratives about life and landscape in the Hebrides.

Historical Archaeology, Jun 2014

The archaeological study of the postmedieval Scottish Highlands has engaged little with Gaelic or... more The archaeological study of the postmedieval Scottish Highlands has engaged little with Gaelic oral tradition. The period from 1700 saw the gradual decline of the Gaelic language and the society and culture that supported it. Events and processes such as the Jacobite rebellions (1715 and 1745), 18th-century agricultural improvement, and the 19th-century Highland Clearances made the postmedieval era a turbulent one for both individuals and ways of life. Oral tradition played a key part in Gaelic society throughout this period and is invaluable as a form of evidence for postmedieval society and culture. Previous archaeological approaches are discussed, and the range of available evidence is outlined in order to demonstrate that archaeological engagement with oral sources can greatly enrich the understanding of Scotland’s past.

Glasgow University, Department of Archaeology, Aug 2012

Glasgow University Department of Archaeology, Dec 2012

Talks by Kevin Grant

Poverty is relative. In the 17th century, the Gaels of the Scottish Highlands and Islands inhabit... more Poverty is relative. In the 17th century, the Gaels of the Scottish Highlands and Islands inhabited a surprisingly equal society. Many of their Chiefs and most of their immediate superiors in the clan system lived in dwellings little grander than that of the average Highlander, with equally few possessions. More importantly, all Gaels were inheritors of an ancient culture of aristocratic origin to which they had rights of access. Few individuals had much; but fewer had nothing.

Throughout the course of the 18th and 19th centuries this position of economic and cultural equality was eroded to the extent that ordinary members of Gaelic society came to be seen, and see themselves, as desperately poor as the upper orders of their society became more remote. As a result of this new relationship, physical hunger was coupled with an intellectual and cultural hunger. This paper aims to explore how this increasing inequality played out across the physical and cultural landscape of Gaeldom.

Reflective talk on my experience of community archaeology as a young practitioner and researcher.... more Reflective talk on my experience of community archaeology as a young practitioner and researcher. I discussed the opportunities and challenges, as I see them, facing Community Archaeology in Scotland.

Mark Gillings has recently (2010) argued against the suggestion that some antiquarians practiced ... more Mark Gillings has recently (2010) argued against the suggestion that some antiquarians practiced a kind of ‘proto-phenomenology’, as argued by some post-processual archaeologists. Instead, Gillings suggests that antiquarian practice related to the earlier idea of Chorography – an ancient, ill-defined practice concerned with evoking a ‘sense of place’. Chorographic understandings of landscape sought to evoke the character and ‘placeness’ of a place by inhabiting, sketching, and writing about the landscape. Often, these understandings of place were concerned as much with the present as with the past, discussing topography, archaeology, folklore, landscape ‘gossip’, and first hand accounts of experiences of the landscape.

In this paper I will argue that aspects of this approach are present in some 20th century publications concerning Modern period occupation of Scotland’s Highlands and Islands. These discussions of the past as ‘Folk Life’ are rich in incidental detail and anecdotal evidence, giving a detailed description of life in the past.

With reference to a case study in South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, I also hope to explore the potential usefulness today of a rich, evocative, ‘chorographic’ approach which promotes the “re-enchantment of landscapes deemed to have been disenchanted by science” (Gillings 2010: 54). I will also discuss how it may be possible for such a rich sense of place may be communicated to an academic audience through traditional and non-traditional methods.

Gillings, M.
2010 Chorography, Phenomenology and the Antiquarian Tradition. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 21: 53-63.

Postgraduate Conference in Historical Archaeology Kevin Grant PhD Candidate, University of Glas... more Postgraduate Conference in Historical Archaeology
Kevin Grant
PhD Candidate, University of Glasgow
k.grant.2@research.gla.ac.uk
http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/research/students/kgrant/

William Roy: The Cartography of Fear

The Military Survey of Scotland (the Roy map) is an invaluable cartographic resource familiar to anyone studying the later historical period in Scotland or indeed the history of mapping itself. However, when the map was commissioned in 1747 it was not simply intended as a benign exercise in early cartography. As part of my PhD research, which aims to present a human and experiential understanding of post-medieval Highland and Island landscapes, this paper aims to subvert the current, somewhat uncritical, view of the Roy map simply as a piece of excellent map-making.

A recent republication of the map in atlas form is accompanied by three essays: one which is essentially a resume of William Roy; one which is a discussion of the military use and context of the map; and one which discusses technical and theoretical advances in mapping during the Enlightenment. The subjugated people who were to be surveyed are absent in all of these discussions, as is a real attempt to understand the deeper meaning of the map to these people and indeed those who used and created it.

Although there is a military element to the survey, there are aspects of the map which may suggest a more insidious purpose. In this paper I will suggest that the military survey was an exercise in power, alienation, invasiveness, and control, and can be equated to a ‘power machine’: an apparatus through which the government sought to destroy local geographies, control the landscape, and allay their own fears about chaos, claustrophobia and lack of control. I will also aim to try and understand the oppressive nature of the process of map making to the people on the ground and the psychological impact of the presence of a detailed map of the Highlands.