Divers pinpointing other wreck sites
For the past two days the SAMPHIRE team has been diving in Loch Laxford, south of Kinlochbervie. We are diving alongside local divers to search for the remains of two unrecorded shipwrecks. We first heard of these wrecks during our community outreach trip earlier this summer. We have also had the opportunity to spend more time with the divers going over maps to pinpoint other wreck sites for future survey.
Today the SAMPHIRE team surveyed a ballast dump/site reported by local diver Jimmy Crooks in Badnaban near Lochinver. The site has never been recorded before and lies just off a small island near the beach. Jimmy, a Lochinver resident with years of experience, has just celebrated his 71st birthday and was kind enough to accompany us to the site to guide us directly to it!
Taking a look at Badnaban with Jimmy Crooks
Following up on clues from local skipper Kenny Livingstone, we took a walk down the shore at Chuaig Bay at low tide. He had informed us about two historic wrecks that have never been included in the RCAHMS database. Although the wreck on the shore was not exposed we found several parts of the second wreck in the intertidal part of the stream including a well-preserved capstan and a boiler.
Investigating the beach at Chuaig Bay
After several months of preparation, it is time to get our feet wet. The team is now gearing up for the diving component of Project SAMPHIRE. In one week’s time we will be heading off to investigate reports of previously unrecorded underwater archaeological sites, the result of direct community engagement on Scotland’s north-west coast. We plan to dive at a new site every day for eight days in hopes to confirm these reports and identify any diagnostic, informative clues. Along the way we will be joined on the shore, on the boats and in the water by those members of the local communities who came forward with their knowledge of these sites. Stay tuned for more details as they come in!
Investigating a wreck site in NW Scotland (Photo: WA C&M 2012)
Phase 2 of the 2013 season of the SAMPHIRE project is now complete. The team is now back in Edinburgh and looking forward to starting analysis of all the data that we have been given.
We would like to say a huge thank you to all the community members who have taken the time to talk to us. We have been invited into people’s homes, offices and boats and given a warm reception everywhere we went. With the help of Scotland’s west coast maritime community we have been able to collate a huge amount of new information on Scotland’s marine heritage. In the coming weeks and months we will be going through all the data and making sense of it and then picking locations to investigate and dive on during Phase 3.
As part of this we will be meeting up with and hopefully working with the people who first reported these selected sites. By the end of this year we will feed our work into the online national databases of archaeological sites and will also pass the enhanced information back to the communities who gave it to us in the first place.
We made a quick dash over to Dunvegan to catch Willy Murdo, a local fisherman said by locals in Portree to have a comprehensive knowledge of the west coast of Skye. We caught him just as he returned to Dunvegan harbour and he kindly invited us up to his house above the town. He showed us fragments of two wrecks which had come up in his fishing gear and then we sat down over the charts and added a few more points to our map. We have a long drive to Oban ahead of us tonight but have had another great day with plenty of results.
Willy Murdo shares his knowledge of the west coast of Skye.
We started the day in Portree by calling in to the harbour master Ron Henderson and coastguard Davie Urquhart. Davie and Ron went over the charts with us and highlighted a number of wreck sites which were not charted. We then had a chat with local prawn fisherman James Corrigall. James brought us on to his boat and was able to give us exact coordinates for most of the sites from his GPS plus a few extra.
Investigating maritime heritage in Portree, Skye.
The SAMPHIRE team made several stops this morning. Starting from Applecross we crossed over the spectacular snowy mountain pass at Bealach.
Crossing the pass at Bealach.
We descended to Lochcarron and spoke with a local commercial diver. We then moved on to Plockton where we met up with John, a creel fisherman from Torridon who knew of several wrecks further north which we marked on our charts. After dropping in to chat with the good folk at Calum’s Plockton Seal Trips we drove on to Dornie, beside the amazing Eilean Donan Castle, to meet Matt Baron, an instructor at Dornie Divers.
The in-depth knowledge of local maritime communities.
Dornie Divers are a relatively new sub-aqua club and are focused on discovering new wreck dive sites in the area. We had a great chat with Matt and will be following up on the sites he has reported to us, including a possible lead on a submerged flying boat. We are now heading on to Skye where we will stay for the night at Portree.
After finishing recording of the cannons in Shieldaig we made for Applecross. The weather took a turn for the worse but we pressed on. Our first stop was the Applecross Heritage Centre which was unfortunately closed although we spotted an interesting anchor outside in the grounds.
Investigating the maritime history of Applecross.
We then met up with local archaeologist Nick Goldthorpe who is a font of knowledge and has a number of possible leads on unrecorded local underwater archaeological sites. Nick also introduced us to several local fishermen who had accurate locations for several recorded losses. The fishermen also gave us some local knowledge on an old double-ended boat lying near the Applecross Inn. By the time we were finished the sun had come back out to reveal stunning views across to Raasay. We will head on for Dornie in the morning to meet some of the local divers.
We arrived in Torridon on the 11th of May and immediately began chatting with the local community about marine archaeology. We met some interesting local people with lots of useful contacts at Torridon and were given some contacts for local scallop divers. After leaving some promotional material for the project we moved on to Shieldaig.
At Sheldaig we followed up on some previously unrecorded sites reported to us ahead of the field trip, visiting a couple of locals in their homes to chat about the project and the sites they had discovered. We followed up with a visit to the local hotel where we met and chatted with several fishermen. Shieldaig is off-limits to trawling so all the local fishermen use creels, primarily for prawn.
Following up on a lead from Gairloch we contacted some of the local boat operators who pointed us to a large cannon lying on the main street of Shieldaig. The next morning we bumped into a local man Robert Gordon, a former fisherman and local historian. He filled in the story of the cannon which was in use at nearby Ardheslaig as an anchor for many years. Robert gave us a video interview and told us that it has only been in its current location for the last five years. A quick search of CANMORE seems to suggest that this important artefact has never been recorded before. The SAMPHIRE team made a complete record of the dimensions of the cannon and hope to identify its nation of origin and age once we get back to Edinburgh.
Recording cannons around Shieldaig.
Chatting to another local, Andrew Patrick, whom we worked with last year in Torridon we were informed that there was a second unrecorded cannon in Shieldaig! Investigating further we found that a neighbour of Andrew’s has a small cannon in his garden and that it was recovered during dredging of the Congo river in Kinshasa before ending up in Shieldaig. Although this cannon is not of local origin we recorded its dimensions and hope to come back with a more detailed origin for it too.
Next stop Applecross!