In The Garden - Plus……’Waterlog’….. From The Caithness Broch Project….
by Bernie Bell - 09:43 on 17 January 2024
In The Garden….
….on-going.
Yesterday.....it’s never happened before….. a goose flew into our garden, landed, sat for a bit, then paced about looking for something to eat. It had a look at the pond – but that’s frozen solid……
There isn’t really anything for a goose to eat as the grass is under snow – we’d put grain and peanuts on the ground for the garden birds, but the goose didn’t bother with them – then it flew away again.
There’s a first time for everything - a seagull once landed on the pond, flapped about and wrecked things a bit, then flew off.
I once put an Onyx egg in my neighbour’s clump of saxifrage and told her that a giant Onyx bird had laid it – just messin’.
The spiral….. under snow…
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Plus….
An old quarry-pool on Mike’s constitutional…..frozen - with pellets of hail making patterns…
And……’The Hound of the Baskervilles’? Naaa….a neighbour’s dog slid a bit – looks impressive though….
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‘Waterlog’….
Not the state the land is in at the moment! – but a book by Roger Deakin which I’m reading again after a long enough gap. I needed something ‘clean’ to read – not something full of mean-spirited people and their mean-spirited actions, whether fictitious or not.
‘Waterlog’ isn’t fiction, it’s a true tale told by a true person. It's mostly about wild swimming, of which Roger Deakin was a great advocate.
Near the beginning - in fact pages 7-15 - he describes a visit to the Isles of Scilly. He describes walking in a Bronze-age landscape on land, and then he "went down for a swim in the Bronze-age fields." He snorkels out into a shallow bay, over the continuation of the Bronze-age landscape. He sees how the water snails echo the land snails, on the walls.
Long story short - it's a wonderful evocation of the idea of how some of the land has been covered by the sea but there is still a connection, more than a connection, one still flows into the other.
It's an enormously interesting subject - the change in the landscape and therefore in land-use - and I’m reminded of an exchange I had with Caroline Wickham Jones….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/the-passing-of-a-great-archaeologist/
…..some years ago, which I began as follows….
“I live in Gorseness, just up and over the hill from the Hall of Rendall (of Doocot fame). Out in the sea across from the Hall of Rendall is a skerry called the Holm of Rendall. On the O.S. map it says that there's a cairn of this skerry. When I go for walks I look at this skerry, and have thought that it just doesn't make sense to have your cairn on a skerry which you have to cross the sea to get to. Imagine the trouble building it, and the risk of in-undation. I know, people will do all sorts of extreme things for their beliefs, but this just didn't make sense. If, however, the sea wasn't there and the area was land, it would be a convenient little mound in the landscape on which to place your cairn.
This is just 'round the corner' from the Bay of Firth….
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/staffpages/uploads/arc007/NGS%20final%20ReportFEB10.pdf
…….and just down from the cairn on Gairsay, across from the cairns on Rousay, etc. I suppose folks might go to all that trouble to put their cairn on a tiny skerry in the sea - but a lower sea level makes a lot more sense.”
There’s Roger Deakin’s connection with water itself....
"Natural water has always held the magical power to cure. Somehow or other, it transmits its own self-regenerating powers to the swimmer."
And my tuppenceworth on that subject……
https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/11/05/wells-springs-of-orkney/
It’s an exceptionally good book/good read, in which Roger Deakin takes the reader with him on both his aquatic journey and his spiritual journey.
He’s someone I think I would like to have met.
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From The Caithness Broch Project….
“Happy New Year - and our upcoming AGM
What will 2024 bring for the Caithness Broch Project? Well, first and foremost, we've got an AGM coming up - mark the date in your diary:
Caithness Broch Project AGM 2024
Tuesday 30th January
8pm
Google Meets / Physical location [location TBC]
If you wish to attend, please reply to this email and we will send out the AGM materials.
A quick email to wish all our members and friends a very happy New Year, and all the very best for 2024 - we thank you so much for your continued support, and hope that we can continue to deliver you plenty of good news this following year.
It might have seemed like a bit of a quieter year this year, according to our socials, but that's because the Project has made significant strides towards establishing a site for the construction of the replica broch. Some of that (see below) is a little difficult to transfer into energetic social media posts, but it's all quite important and necessary stuff in order to achieve our dream!
Of course, we still managed to squeeze in several talks and visits. Our favourite outreach event had to be the Seven 'Wonders of Watten', though, where we explored seven archaeological and historical sites with pupils of Watten Primary School. A really fun day out.
With respect to our ultimate aim, it really took centre stage this year, and this is what we've managed to achieve:
1. Traffic assessment and junction design – this was a significant risk as we have looked at several sites that were discounted due to problems with road access.
2. Garnered feedback from council archaeologist.
3. Feedback from Nature Scot and first stage protected species survey.
4. Discussion with SSE regarding working under their power line infrastructure.
5. Obtained map from Scottish Water which shows no water main or drainage on or near the site.
6. Initial discussions with drainage designer on drainage layout.
7. Preparation of site sections to demonstrate that the broch will not be overly prominent on the site (as per Planning pre-application feedback).
8. Draft site plan prepared showing an indicative site layout with paths and roads with gradients.
9. Peat survey completed over areas of most interest.
10. Community consultation with online survey (SEE BELOW!) and in-person events in Latheron.
So, we'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support this year, it makes a huge difference.
https://www.thebrochproject.co.uk/
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