Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Heritage lottery money brings history to life in Rousay

Reenactments in Rousay
Reenactments are being held in Rousay, Orkney, to teach people about it's history. Pic: Rousay, Egilsay, and Wyre Heritage SCIO

An Orkney charity has received a near-£10,000 National Lottery Heritage funding windfall.

Rousay, Egilsay, and Wyre Heritage will use the cash to help bring the islands’ history to life.

Educational events and reenactments will be held in Rousay, which has two ongoing archaeological digs taking place each year.

The dig at Swandro is run by the University of Bradford while the Skaill Farm excavation is run by the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute.

Rousay, Egilsay, and Wyre Heritage has been working with these institutions to run reenactments already.

More are planned, using the £9,858 being received through The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Helen Castle is the secretary for the heritage organisation. She’s hoping the reenactment days will encourage people to visit the dig sites and find out more about Rousay’s history.

She said: “The reenactment guys show what life was like at the time and they do various activities with children.

“So far we’ve had an 18th-century reenactment for Skaill Farm. This Saturday we’ve got the first of the Iron Age reenactments at Swandro.

What life was like

“On the 6th of August we’ve got the Iron Age guys in the Rousay Heritage Centre with some replica finds.

“They’ll give more details on what life was like at that time. They’ll talk about the things they needed and the crafts and skills you had to have.

“In the Autumn, The University of the Highlands and Islands, will be doing a talk on food farming and trade in the 18th and 19th centuries at Skaill farm. They’ll also be showing their finds from this year’s dig.”

The heritage funding will also be used to update a booklet on the history of the islands.  It will now include information gathered during the three digs that have taken place since the booklet was first produced.

Aside from that, the funding will be used to purchase a bench made from 100% recycled plastic, for the Rousay Heritage Centre and garden.

Replica artifacts of items found at the Swandro and Skaill digs will also be produced, to be displayed in the Rousay Heritage Centre.

The dig site at Swandro, Rousay. Pic courtesy of Rousay, Egilsay, and Wyre Heritage SCIO

Conversation