Katherine loved her Greek pottery conservation field school in Sozopol, Bulgaria and is back with us before leaving for a bioarchaeology field school in Menorca in another week.  We are planning a trip to the island in September and are coordinating with the (very talented and, consequently, very busy) team to finalize dates.  Katherine is working on application for registration as a Scottish Charity.   We are approaching our four year and have maintained our 501(c)3 status.

Tom Addyman and John Sanders (our outstanding standing building experts) have all they need to complete that report and specific recommendations for repairs/consolidation.  Fiona and David still have a few below water points to collect on the survey, and we hope to get a great 3D model of the cellar to merge in with the model David developed from the March 2015 photographs.  Of course, it will still take some time and effort to compile the final report for Historic Scotland.

Next steps:  An additional Scheduled Monument Consent application for signage, consolidation/repairs, and, perhaps, some exploratory trenches.   If you have suggestions for designs for the signage and kiosk, please do send your thoughts to us.

We lost almost a year to the heavy rain.  The Good Friday expedition got the building experts to site and we hope the September trip will finally let us complete goals from the second SMC.  Then ... onward to SMC 3!

Thanks for your support!

​Apologies.  We missed the June post by one day.

The team is in full swing on various summer activities.  Tom reports he is near completion of the recommendations for repairs.  If we don't get over sooner, Katherine and I are planning a visit in September.   David and Fiona are watching for opportunities to get the last bits of survey data.

Even though I missed the Father's Day post that I had intended to do, I can't resist including this photo from the slopes of Ben Vorlich here.

We have also been in contact with an exceptional local craftsman to potentially create Ellan Vhow wooden quaiches from the elm wood salvaged from the October 2013 expedition.   We should be able to report more on this in the coming weeks.  There is a limited supply of that elm wood from the island, but these quaiches will surely be part of our fund raising as we move toward specific repairs on the tower.

Thanks for your support!