Breadalbane Academy paid the Scottish Crannog Centre a visit and took over the outdoor cafe. Community Archaeologist Rachel has written about her experience with the students.
On Tuesday 18th we were taken over, not by Picts or Gauls, but by 14 local school students! They arrived laden with rich and spicy cheese scones, crispy oatcakes and a huge vat of nettle soup made by the home economics class the day before. The reason for the take-over was to help the students raise funds for their school trip to the World War I battlefields in France this November.
They took full control of our Iron Age cooking area, laid out their feast, wrote their menu, costed their foods and even created meal deals! Our interpreters explained how flour would have been ground 2,500 years ago, and many of the students had a go, as well as learning how to set and tend a fire, split wood, make punk (rotting wood for fire-making) and even de-bark trunks for building wood. Some students listened in on the crannog tours and then developed their own introductions to the crannog, which they then presented on our walkway to members of the public, working really hard to make sure their intros were accurate, interesting and fun. We were very proud of them!
It was also a chance to give the students a sneak-peak at the 2,500-year-old lyre bridge that we have in our collection, and to discuss how music would have been used in the Iron Age. We talked about why this object is so important to Scotland and also what our little whistle might have been used for by the prehistoric people of Loch Tay, as part of our Heritage Lottery Funded project, “The Bridge That Connects Communities 2,500 Years Apart”.
The food was a fantastic success, raising a well-earned total of £110.62 and many visitors to the museum commented in particular how delicious the soup was. We are very lucky as a museum to have a local school so willing to be involved in what we do here, and for allowing the students to really engage with their local heritage and history, in a very creative way. Thank you very much to the teachers and students for working so hard and for a brilliant take-over day!
Grace and Hollies thoughts on their day at the Crannog:
Our experience at the Crannog Centre was amazing; we have such a fun time.
Grace said: “It was so interesting and great for educational purposes.”
Hollie said: “I enjoyed making up introductions and talking about the crannog to people. Thank you so much for having us.”
