Aberdeen academic, Jeff Oliver, and Community Archaeologist, Aoife Gould, gave a talk in Inverurie the evening of May 14th to local community members about recent investigations at the 'Colony' site.
The Bennachie Landscapes project, a joint collaboration between the University of Aberdeen and the Bailies of Bennachie, has begun to reveal a wealth of archaeological remains from the Colony site, a nineteenth-century crofting community located on the lower slopes of the north-east’s most famous landmark. Little is known about the lives of Bennachie’s crofter-colonists and what information we do have tends to put them in an overly romantic or alternatively negative light. As Dr Oliver explained “our initial findings suggest a more complex picture of the fortunes of the Colonists. Many of the former settlements are beginning to provide quite individualistic biographies that go against the more popular image we have of the colonists scratching a living from the hillside’s impoverished slopes”.
The event was held at the Acorn Centre and drew over sixty members of the public to an evening of vibrant discussion about the lives of the one of Aberdeenshire’s most notable historic communities.
The evening was organized as part of the University of Aberdeen’s Café Scientifique Aberdeenshire series, which takes place until June. Full details can be found at www.engagingaberdeen.co.uk.