Images of The Italian Chapel, Orkney In 1940, around 1800 Italian Prisoners of War who had been captured in North Africa were taken to the Orkney islands to assist in building the Churchill Barriers under the premise that this was a civilian project linking islands with roads. In 1942 550 prisoners arrived on Lamb Holm Island in Camp 60. In 1943 with the arrival of a new Camp Commander they were given two nissen huts with the intention to build a chapel and a school . The interior murals were painted by one of the prisoners, Domenico Chiocchetti, who also created a statue of St George slaying the dragon from barbed wire covered with cement.

Since the war the chapel has been maintained by a POW Chapel Preservation Committee and is now a popular tourist attraction.

Murthly Castle

Tayside Original free standing tower of unknown age with alterations and additions dating from the late sixteenth century. Extensions have been added at various times several carrying 17th century dates. The rubble tower rises to 4 storeys with an attic. The tower is claimed to have been a hunting-seat of the old Scottish Kings

Mingary Castle

This castle guards the entrances to the Sound of Mull and Loch Sunart. It was erected inside a wall of enciente shaped to the rock and dates from the 13th century. The main entrance was by sea up cut steps from the rock. Three ranges of buildings stand within the curtain wall . Mingary was probably built by the MacIans of Ardnamurchan . In 1588 when a MacLean of Duart captured the MacIan there was an unsuccessful siege to the castle with Spanish soldiers from an Armada galleon in Tobermory Bay. The castle was garrisoned for the governement in 1745.

The actual concept of allowing members of the public enter data onto the database, was one of the requirements of the Scheme’s funding. This aspect of the scheme is in the very first steps of it’s evolution and will only improve. If people are interested, contact your local FLO

Workflow diagram of how Self Reporting works – click on the image for more details

I went along to see Essex FLO, Caroline McDonald and was gently introduced to the arcane arts of finds description and recording! As an exercise we described a pencil that had been repeatedly sharpened to the point of it being very nearly a stub, in exhaustive detail. An awful lot of work for such a seemingly mundane thing! Let me tell you, recording finds is not an easy task by any means and the work that goes into each & every one is quite staggering! Us detectorists might remember this next time we feel that finds are going a little too slowly through the system for our liking?

Self-recording is challenging and rewarding, but far from easy. Anyone who thinks it will be a simple task had better think again. A really good find can take hours to prepare and even a scrap of a brooch or a broken buckle must be tackled with equal energy and enthusiasm.

Being able to upload data and build a comprehensive record of a find, site or landscape is a great thing..but it is no cakewalk. Rules must be adhered to otherwise what we will get in the end is unintelligible babble, loads of people describing the self-same thing differently, rendering the database more or less unusable. Luckily there is a comprehensive manual that clarifies most anything and helps understand what is required. Follow the rules laid out there and there are fewer problems.

Describing objects is difficult, but it does become easier with time. I think many detectorists will like this part of the process very much. Here we can lavish attention upon our finds and have the record of them fully available for others to enjoy and use whichever way they please. The description process is logical and reasoned, you start at the top and work your way down to the bottom describing every feature in a jargon-free and minutely detailed way, and then flip the find over and describe the back in the same way.

All photos are uploaded, then registered. Copyright will in our case be with the individual who makes the record. References are linked to from a bibliography, findspot details entered and the find record saved. You can go back at any time and edit the record, enter more details, whatever. When the record is finalised to your satisfaction the record is sent to your FLO for validation and it is either cleared or returned for update.

I’m starting out on a process that should in time see my entire collection, dating back 14 years, catalogued, recorded in detail for public comsumption, uploaded and available for future research. I think that is an exciting and worthwhile thing to do. It’s not for everyone, like I said it takes great deal of work that many cannot afford, but the records that issue from those who are able to expend the required time and effort, will be exemplary I’m sure, and the experience gained, of real use to others who cannot. I would urge those who feel that they need to extend their detecting practise right now, to have a go.

by Jeff Hatt  

Spynie Palace

Morayshire Residence of the Bishops of Moray from 14th century to 1686. The oldest part of the castle is the hall house along the south side. Much of the design of the mouldings seems French or English rather than Scottish. As the castle was erected while the nearby Elgin Cathedral was being built it is probable that the masons employed on the cathedral may also have been working at the castle

Kellie Castle

16th century E plan tower house Kellie Castle is one of the finest Tower Houses in Scotland. It was probably spared any improvements by the Victorians as it was dissociated in the late 18th century and was virtually abandoned and left to ruin. In 1878 it was taken over by the Lorimer family who restored it as it is today. The north tower is late 15th/early 16th century and was built on a 14th century tower. The east tower was built in 1573 and in the 17th century a fifth storey was added. These were linked between 1603 and 1606 by a large L-shaped block. This houses the Great Hall and Withdrawing room. The building contains magnificent plaster ceilings, painted panelling and furniture designed by the architect Sir Robert Lorimer (1864 – 1929), who was brought up in the castle and continued the restoration work of his father. Robert was also responsible for laying out the gardens.

Caerlaverock Castle

13th century fortress surrounded by moat and was built by Sir Herbert Maxwell. It is one of the few castles in Scotland with a protective moat. It has been attacked many times, in 1300 a garrison of 3000 troops of Edward I of England laying siege to it; the sixty men inside held out for two days. It was attacked and destroyed on at least five other occasions and, with the exception of the final attack, it was always rebuilt

Today when we talk about the Picts we are referring to the ‘Historical Picts’, those Iron Age people living in the present Scotland and who had come to the attention of classical writers after their encounter with the Romans in the 1^st. century AD. 

This was not always the case however. Three decades ago discussion also involved the ‘Proto Picts’ the people whom scholars of the time thought were the predecessors of the ‘Historical Picts’. 

Since then the ‘Proto Picts’ have faded from the scene, and, if the current trend in archaeological thinking continues, the term ‘Picts’ will also disappear.

Fraser Hunter, writing on the Roman coin hoard found at Birnie near Elgin (Current Archaeology NO. 181) takes a long time in mentioning the Picts.. He also makes a statement with which I totally disagree viz…..to understand the Picts we must look to the power-politics of the Roman Iron Age. By this latter I take it he means the Iron Age in Scotland during the R/B period. The Picts have always been a problem and archaeologists and historians try their utmost to dismiss them. But the problem will not go away

It is rather silly to say that a race of people just suddenly burst on the stage of history. Even the Romans had their antecedents. And Bede, the father of British Historians, was sufficiently confident to mention the Picts as a separate people with their own language. More, he even sub-divided them into North and Southern Picts. But all we know about them now is their magnificent inscribed stones and the single place-name element Pit (pett) meaning a place(location) or a portion (of land).

Current thought states that the Picts were a very early Celtic speaking people. If so, why no trace of them in England, Wales or Ireland?

I feel we must turn to other aspects of prehistory that are unique to that part of Scotland occupied by the Picts. What springs to mind readily are, Recumbent Stone Circles, Four Poster Stone Circles and Brochs. 

These, taken together and in the present context, form sufficient evidence to suggest that the people who were in the northern parts of Scotland from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age remained in splendid isolation, dictated by their physical environment, until the coming of the Scotti with whom they had racial/cultural affinities and with whom they affiliated to form an army sufficiently powerful to halt the northern expansion of the Northumbrian Angles at the Battle of Nechtansmere and, much later, the eastern expansion of the Norwegian Vikings at the Battle of Spynee Lake

The Picts were the people who lived north of the rivers Forth and Clyde from the late 3rd century until the mid 9th century AD. There is very little archaeological evidence for the Picts and much of what we do know about them has come from the study of their art. This is mostly on sculptured stones, but is also found on cave walls and some metalwork.

The dating of the stones has been much debated but and overlapping chronology of the three groups is generally agreed. The stones have been grouped by archaeologists into 3 main types:

Class 1

These are rough boulders which have inscised abstract or animal symbols . These date from the 6th and 7th centuries AD and are associated to a pre Christian phase.

Class 2

These are shaped stones with symbols carved in relief and usually include a Christian cross on one side. Usually a hunting or battle scene appears on the reverse side. These date from the 7th to the early 9th century AD and are associated to early Christianity.

Class 3

These are usually free standing crosses without symbols but they have elaborate decorative carving. These date from the mid 9th century and later and are associated to the period after AD843 when the Picts were united with the Scots.

The symbols which appear on the class 1 and class 2 groups include familiar figures such as the serpent or fish and also imaginary animals such as the Pictish beast. There are also abstract symbols such as the mirror and comb, the double disc and the Z rod. We do not know the meaning of the Pictish symbols.

The most likely purpose of the stones is that they were grave markers, also few have been found on top of graves or perhaps boundary markers. The Battle and hunting scenes on some Class 2 stones may commemorate particular events in Pictish history.

Written Inscriptions

Some of the stones bear written inscriptions in a number of languages including Latin and Gaelic and in Pictish which no one can understand today. The different alphabets used included Latin, Runic (Viking) and Ogham. In Ogham the letters are formed by a series of stroked set against or across a line. When the Pictish Ogham inscriptions are transcribed into our alphabet they form a jumble of letters which does not make any sense.