Kildonan - Iron Age

During the Iron Age the Strath of Kildonan in Sutherland was home to many small farming communities. The relatively mild climate of this period enabled the cultivation of barley, wheat, and oats, and the keeping of horses, sheep, and cattle. Although much of the land had been cleared for agriculture, areas of woodland survived (providing shelter for deer, wild boar, and wolves). The Iron Age residents of Kildonan lived in circular roundhouses, made of stone and turf, with conical thatched roofs. Hut circles from these long ago dwellings can still be seen today. More than 350 hut circles have been identified in Kildonan. The roundhouses provided shelter for humans and animals. They were focused around a central hearth, with bays for sleeping and stalls for animals towards the walls of the house. Roundhouses were common throughout the British Isles. However, many of the roundhouses in Kildonan have specific regional variations – including passageways in the walls. This reconstruction shows how roundhouses near Caen in the Strath of Kildonan may have looked about 2000 years ago. The dwellings are set within a wider landscape, which was already profoundly shaped by human activity. Partial deforestation, and the impact of growing crops and grazing animals, made this Iron Age environment far from its original wild state. A project between Timespan Museum, a cultural organisation in Helmsdale, a village in the very northeast of Scotland, local, global and planetary ambitions to weaponise culture for social change and the University of St Andrews as part of CINE project. CINE - a collaborative digital heritage project between 9 partners and 10 associated partners from Norway, Iceland, Ireland and Scotland. The Lead Partner is Museum Nord. The project is funded by the Northern and Arctic Periphery Programme.

Sarah Kennedy, Jacquie Aitken, Lucy Hardie, Iain Oliver, Catherine-Anne Cassidy, Alan Miller.

Jacquie Aitken (Timespan)

Researchers have been interested in the pre-historic residents of Kildonan for some time. As far back as the nineteenth century antiquarians were recording hut circles and excavating Iron Age objects. Many of these artefacts are now cared for by Timespan, and provided vital information for the furnishings represented in the reconstruction. Around the Caen Burn there is evidence of considerable pre-historic activity, including hut-circles and pre-historic field systems. The remains in this area were surveyed in the late twentieth century, and provided the basis for this reconstruction. Archaeological guidance for the reconstruction was provided by Jacquie Aitken (Heritage Officer for Timespan).

A digital landscape was created using survey data and height map. Models were created in 3D modelling programs and imported into UNREAL (a cross-platform game engine for creating virtual worlds). The models were then scaled, orientated and assembled. The landscapes were populated with flora and fauna. Where applicable, models of characters and animals were imported and animated.