The archive version of the text can be obtained from the project repository on the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) website, after agreeing to their terms and conditions: ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?sfs_ba_2007 > Downloads > Documents > Final Reports. From here you can download the file ‘Acknowledgements.pdf’.
During the SFS project, Karen Hardy and Caroline Wickham-Jones held positions first as honorary post-doctoral research Fellows at the University of Edinburgh and secondly as Visiting Research Fellows at the University of Newcastle. Both institutions are to be thanked for their support.
Initially the project also included Bill Finlayson of the Centre for Field Archaeology (then at the University of Edinburgh), as a third co-director. His departure for Jordan in late 1999 brought an end to his close work with the project but he has remained a staunch friend and helpful colleague throughout. We would like to thank him for all the work he carried out for SFS in its early years and for the advice and encouragement we have received since.
In 1999 and 2000 SFS work was carried out as part of the University of Edinburgh’s Scotland’s First Settlers (SFS) Project, Denis Harding, Pat Storey and Ian Morrison are all thanked for their logistical help. We would especially like to thank the Centre for Field Archaeology for all their help in the field in those years and with subsequent post-excavation, in particular Jill Strobridge who dealt with urgent phone calls from the isolated highland outposts where we were working. Other logistical support in the field was provided by many, all of whom are owed a great debt: Applecross Estates, Applecross Post Office, the Crown Estates, DERA BUTEC and the Works Services Department Serco, Kyle of Lochalsh, RTB Applecross, Alan Cairns and the crew of LENIE from the RMAS, RJ Mcleod Ltd, Sir Iain Noble, Highland Council Roads Department, Q Banting, Alan Cairns, Lorna Lumsden, Mike Summers, Brian Urquhart and Jimmy Watt. In addition, many local landowners, farmers, and crofters allowed access to their land, provided useful information, and showed great interest in the project, we are grateful to them all.
Particular thanks are due to Steven Birch, George Kozikowiski, and Martin Wildgoose (Hardy & Wickham-Jones 2000) who provided so much generous support, information, and advice, from the beginning and throughout the project, often at short notice and involving both fieldwork and post-excavation work. Their friendship has kept us on the right track. We are grateful to all of the specialists for putting so much into the project, for teasing out those nuggets of interesting information, and for getting so involved. Kate Sanderson is owed a huge debt for keeping us on the straight and narrow during the final stages of post-excavation and for organizing so much of the nitty-gritty in this publication. Finally, Liz Gilmore and Pete Stokes are to be thanked for their work in dotting all ‘i’s, crossing all ‘t’s and removing superfluous hyphens, not to mention the numbering of illustrations and getting the bibliography into shape!
Fieldwork over the years involved many people all of whom put up with sun, rain, and midges, sometimes in isolated living conditions. They were all an important part of work and we would like to thank everyone (if we have left you out please accept our apologies): Janice Adamson; Richard Bourne; Kirsty Cameron; Mike Chase; Donna Clark; Galo Ceron; Mike Cressey; Topher Dagg; Sheila Duthie; Ivy Hancock; Kati Kohler and Bandi; Hazel MacFarlane; Gordon MacIntyre; Catriona McKeowan; Fergus MacLeod; Murdo Nicholson; John Patrick; Kath Small; Ian Sudderby; Kirsten Thompson; John Tutt; John Fulcher; Alison MacLeod; Kati Kohler and Bandi; Bill Ramsay; and Ann Wakeling.
Great thanks are due to all of our sponsors, but in particular to Historic Scotland who have provided admirable support in both financial and archaeological terms. SFS has drawn heavily on the support of Patrick Ashmore and Noel Fojut and we would like to thank them and their colleagues for their forbearance and belief in the project.
Fraser Green and Kevin Edwards would like to thank Mrs Maureen Lamb and Dr Andrew McMullen for providing laboratory assistance and guidance regarding the on-site pollen work.
Karen Hardy thanks Juan Jose Ibanez for the use of Illustration 443, ‘Hide tanning’. David Manning and Robert Shiel kindly interpreted the SEM mineral spectra. Steven Ashby kindly commented on the comb fragment and Professor T O’Connor confirmed the comb material. Steven Birch acknowledges the Lejre Experimental Centre, Denmark who provided funding for his trip to Lejre and assistance with the experimental work.
Alan Saville kindly provided access to the cowrie shell collection from Oronsay at the National Museums of Scotland. Lekky Shepperd provided access to the cowrie shells from Skara Brae. Sankurie Pye of the NMS is to be thanked for her help in understanding the shellfish and their behaviour, and also for providing access to modern references collections housed at the NMS. Andy Horton and Richard Lord of the British Marine Life Study Society and Will Le Quesne are also thanked for their detailed and invaluable help in trying to understand how the limpets came to have holes. Richard Lord is thanked for permission to use Illustration 465. The Trustees of the National Museums of Scotland are to be thanked for permission to take illustrations of the perforated shells from Cnoc Coig and Skara Brae, Illustrations 455–457.
Nicky Milner thanks Eva Laurie for supervising the lab work undertaken in the Archaeology Wolfson laboratory and Naomi Belshaw for supervising the inputting of the shell data into the computer. The students who provided the valuable laboratory labour and who spent many hours sorting, counting and measuring are Gavin Davis, Timothy Sandiford, Richard Smalley, Lauren Stanbridge and Jon Welsh. Thanks go to the party of women and children who took part in a shell gathering expedition at Sand in October 2003: Naomi Belshaw, Rachel Parks, Victoria Chase and Guille Lopez, and those who later dared to taste some limpets. She is also very grateful to Nick Winder, who has assisted on statistical questions and for interesting chats on shellfish gathering and consumption, and to Jan Light for providing advice on limpet identification on the archaeological samples.
With regard to the report on the crab fragments Nicky Milner is grateful to Terry O’Connor, Lindsay Allason-Jones and Geoff Bailey for discussion of this topic. She would also like to thank Eva Laurie for helping macerate the crabs in the lab, and to acknowledge that much of her personal knowledge is a result of learning at a young age from her aunt, Patty Posnett, who taught her how to procure crabs from rock pools. She is also grateful to Adrian Nash for schooling her on how to prepare and eat crab.
Tony Newton would like to thank Steven Birch and Malcolm Murray for helping to collect samples for the pumice analysis.
Analysis of the zooarchaeological remains from Sand was carried out in the Centre for Human Palaeoecology’s FishLab at the University of York. Rachael Parks and James Barrett thank Alan Outram for his invaluable help demonstrating the bone fragmentation method; Steven Birch provided the experimental bone material. Thanks also go to Terry O’Connor for help with mammal and bird identification, and to Jen Harland for database help. Additional Labridae specimens were kindly supplied by Mr Brian Saville of Glenelg, Ross-shire.
Andrew Stewart and Angi Silver are to be thanked for their help with work on the environment and soils of the Applecross Peninsula.
The geophysics fieldwork was funded by a grant from the Robertson Bequest Fund to Nyree Finlay for the Scottish Mesolithic Geophysical Survey Project (RJ03/03) and this was supported by the Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow. Dr Finlay would like to offer thanks to Lorna Lumsden at Applecross Estate for permission and Caroline Wickham-Jones and Karen Hardy for the opportunity to undertake the work. Steven Birch provided valuable information about the nature of the backfill. Paul Duffy and David Wilkie assisted with the survey. Richard Jones and Lorna Sharpe commented on an earlier draft and provided advice about the survey. Charles Johns kindly provided the Dolphin Town reports, John Arthur realised the annotated figures and Jeremy Huggett provided valuable assistance.
Caroline Wickham-Jones thanks the many geologists who were consulted about the raw materials, all of whom gave freely of their time and expertise: Fergus Gibb of the University of Sheffield; Brian Jackson of the National Museums of Scotland; Emrys Philips, Ewan Hyslop and David Stevenson of the British Geological Survey. In addition, Adam Nicholson kindly provided information and samples of baked mudstone from the Shiant Isles.
The main illustrations for this publication have been prepared by Jude Callister, Kevin Hicks and Sylvia Stevenson. John Leith digitised the slides.
Finally, of course, thanks are due to our children all of who have lived with the project for many years and who provided much help from ideas, to load-bearers to crab catchers: Carmen; Victoria; Abi; Guille; Jamie and Nicholas!