The team is scheduled to meet in Edinburgh on April 18 to consolidate work for the current Scheduled Monument Consent and to chart the completion of that work.  In addition, we will prioritize recommendations for on-going preservation work.

We will plan a visit to the island on the 19th and/or 20th ... with no particular goals, but perhaps to resolve any questions that arise on the 18th.

We have had a great interaction with Greig Morris of Aye in the Sky on the Eilean a Vow quadcopter modeling.   Since we had a little momentum and the visibility seems right, we asked John Duncan for permission to flyover Inveruglas and he has agreed.  Greg will watch for the right lighting and weather conditions and, hopefully, will capture some great photos in the next week or two.  Even though our charter is for Eilean a Vow, this seemed like an opportunity for Macfarlanes that we shouldn't miss.  Of course, all the modeling work and travel is covered by The Board and no donated funds are used.

As mentioned,  the preservation work recommended by the experts is extensive and there will be plenty of opportunity for good use of donations in future.

Thanks for your on-going support!

Based on our research on the etymology of Elanvow / Eilean a Vow, we have officially changed our name!  We have registered to do business as The Elanvow Preservation Fund even though our legal name, Ellan Vhow Preservation Fund, remains.  EIN 46-0871085

"Elanvow" is the name as written in the 13th and 14th century charters.

Of the many forms of the name over the years,  Ellan Vhow, now seems the least correct, if not just incorrect.  In fact, our Scottish Gaelic translator said that spelling made her 'blood curdle". :-)   As noted earlier, we originally chose that spelling based on the RCAHMS spelling and to chose a relatively unique spelling.  We want to avoid propagation of the Ellan Vhow form and will stop using that.   We will even try to remove/correct past references using the Ellan Vhow form (... not in the Hatshepsut sense ... we will keep reference to the former name ... but we do not want our prior use of that form to promote it's use.)

Follow "What's In A Name?" for on-going research on the island's name.  We feel Eilean a Vow (or any Vow form) and Elanvow have solid basis as legitimate forms. 

Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba has agreed that it is appropriate to list both "Eilean a' Bhogha" and "Eilean a' Bhùth" as the most likely Gaelic forms.  Eilean a' Bhùth was documented after the island was used as store of sorts in the very late 17th century, but we still feel this is a later use.  The island was also clearly call Eilean Ure (The New Island) at one point, but no one claims that to be a potential Gaelic translation of Elanvow.)  We will post the expert Scottish Gaelic pronunciations of each on the Home page and listeners can decide which was more likely written as "Elanvow" in the charters.

Thanks for your on-going support!

Our next visit to Eilean a Vow is scheduled for March 29 to April 3, 2017.  The team will assemble in Edinburgh to meet with Tom Addyman, consolidate work to date and chart the remaining tasks to complete the Historic Environment Scotland report for the second Scheduled Monument Consent.

A quadcopter flyover has been commissioned for the first break in the weather. That is really just a bonus since David Connolly has completed a beautiful core survey.

I am hoping to capture some Scots Gaelic audio recordings of Eilean a Bhogha and Eilean a Bhuth with expert Gaelic speakers in Edinburgh and/or Glasgow for inclusion here.   We continue to believe the island is the Island of the Sunken Rock with additional later names ... the New Island (Eilean Ure) when the Chief moved to Eilean A Vow in the latter part of the 17th century and then Island of the Store (Eilean a' Bhuth) in the late 17th century when goods were sold from the island.

We have enjoyed conversations with Jake King over recent months and Jake has published a short article re Eilean a Vow on January 17 in The Scotsman.  Jake had also noted earlier that Dwelly's Gaelic dictionary referrred to Eilean a Vow as Eilean a' Bhogha, but had some doubts.  It was later in our conversation that the 1861 Admiralty Chart surfaced showing the nautical use of Eilean a Vow to avoid the sunken rock (Guy Rock) to the south.  Even James in this History to the Clan MacFarlane said that the island was "manifestly" Eilean a Vow and "later called" Eilean a Bhuth.

We are looking at a timeline widget to add to the site to better lay out relevant information on names in a more compact form. We plan to include a chapter on the island's names in the HES report and plan to invite Jake King and Simon Taylor to review and acknowledge their contributions to the research to date. 

More to follow soon ...

Wow! Even though we have been actively working since the September trip to the island, neither Katherine nor I recognized that we hadn't updated the project status blog!  We missed two months of updates for the first time in history! Apologies!

Please see the Projects tab and, particularly, the September 5, 6 page with a short summary of that trip.   It was focused on cellar photogrammetry and still more measurements of the island.  It was a very nice and productive Father-Daughter trip appended to the end of our summer travel.

Since the trip, David has been able to incorporate all info has has submitted a "Final Draft" of the survey for team review.  As noted in the projects page, I created two additional 3D models of the cellar and am working on combining the complementary portions.  These are downloadable from the 3D Modeling tab.

Lastly, we have been doing a ton of work on the origins of the island's name.   See What's in a Name? or the "New Evidence..."" link on the home page for a major update there!  The experts at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh have narrowed the likely explanations to "Island of the Store" and "Island of the Sunken Rock".  Myles Maydew of the LLTTNP Rangers pointed out a note in an 1861 admiralty chart that we believe strongly supports the latter!  

We continue to ask for research help.   We are interested in any references to the island and "store" or "booth" as well and any older references to Guy Rock or the use of the island for navigation.   We are particularly interested in solid time references for the "store" and/or "booth" stories.   

If you can't wait to read through the article in the "What's in a Name?" tab, you can jump to the Conclusion? from the list of references listed there. 

Thanks!
Bruce and Katherine

Plans are to move from Spain to London on Saturday for a stop at the British Museum en route to Glasgow.   We intend to be on the island as soon as possible on Monday, September 5.  Fiona is updating the survey map to highlight the target measurements for this trip and we plan to join her for dinner on Monday evening.  After a second day on the island Tuesday, we will head back to London for a followup at the British Museum on Wednesday and then back toward the States.

Goals for the trip are (1) complete the measurements for the survey, and (2) 3D modeling of the cellar.  More to follow...

Katherine and I will visit the island on September 5th and 6th ... weather permitting.  (I would say we are going no matter what the weather is, but don't want to throw down a challenge to Mother Nature after she denied visits for over a year.)   We've arranged the visit along the return trip from Katherine's bioarchaeology and underwater archaeology work ... so all is fully committed at this point.

Unfortunately,  the team archaeologists are committed in various other parts of the world, so it will be just the two of us this trip.   We will get to visit Fiona and consult with her ... and we are looking forward to that.  

Our specific goals are to (1) get the missing measurements for the survey map, and (2) get great photogrammetry images of the cellar.    We will be traveling over in an open canoe, but don't expect to be bringing much kit, so that should be pleasant.

We continue to hope that this will give us the last bits of info needed to finish the report for the second SMC ... along with Tom's recommendations on repairs ... and allow us to apply for the third SMC to begin doing some more concrete work. (Apologies for that.)

Thanks for all your support!
Bruce

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! 

David Connolly spent a good bit of time today transferring 3d modeling files to DropBox to enable the other team members to leverage his work. (Thank you!).  BTW: We may vary between modeling and modelling freely, but our American spell checker will most often correct it to modeling.  We are still hoping to combine David's work, work on the cellar, and Tom/John's work on the tower drawing into a 3d educational model ... and this is what we are calling modeling.

Completing the report and survey with repair recommendations is still the next step for us. This continues to be elusive, but we are getting close.  That then will lead to a third Scheduled Monument Consent application and, hopefully, some more "concrete" work.

Katherine is bracing for exams and then off to Bulgaria and Spain for field schools.

Tom provided the following note ... with full report to come.

​"Though the forecast wasn’t too good, Friday actually started out with sunshine.  By the time we were at the head of the loch it had got cold and windy but was otherwise fine.
 
I put John Sanders (conservation architect) on the park service RIB in Balloch to give him the length of the loch, but drove up to Inveruglas myself and met the boat and some other hangers-on there.
 
We had about 3 hours on the island – long enough for John to mark up our survey drawings in detail – with a comprehensive repairs schedule.  See attached photos of John in action.  I did a bit of a walk-over of the island, took a new set of record photos of the tower – which was looking very fine given the time of year, the extent of previous ivy strip and ivy die-back.  Noticed a few minor things that could be added to our survey drawing set of the tower – some other areas of probable secondary repair (presumably late 19th century / early 20th).  A little new minor ivy growth creeping up from the wall foot.  Some saplings re-sprouting from stumps at the wall heads but otherwise all OK.
 
Good lighting conditions for photography.
 
Water was low.  Had a good look at features at the water line, particularly on the N and NW perimeter.  I’ll look over David’s plan to see whether these were plotted previously when the water was higher. 
 
I also attach an in-progress marked-up drawing of John’s – good luck in deciphering it !
 
We will now get on with digitising the repairs schedule mark-up and circulate that along with John’s written recommendations.
 
Generally a success.
 
Tom"