Stones

Spent part of my morning in the graveyard next to Cumbernauld Old Parish Church taking some photographs of the general layout and then, with several other volunteers, taking photos from different angles of individual gravestones. This was the first part of a project being run in conjunction with an organisation called Scotland's Urban Past (I had mentioned it back in April, when we had our initial discussions.)

Some of the stones in our kirkyard date from the 17th century and the last proper survey was completed back in the 1980s. Technology has moved on a bit since then and, unfortunately, some of the stones have deteriorated since then also.

Fiona, the SUP archeologist, explained the process we should follow, both in terms of the overall project and also how we should record each stone in terms of providing a consistent survey. She even very kindly lent each group (we were working in teams of two or three) a Nikon DSLR camera along with our survey sheets and pencils. And so we got to work.

Sadly, the rain came on after 40 minutes or so, so we retreated back under cover for a coffee and a short review of the morning's activity.

The plan is for us to continue the project in our own time - and with our own cameras! - now that we have agreed on various conventions and standards to avoid duplication, etc. and send the results to SUP for analysis, etc. This may take some time but we also hope to involve more volunteers now that a core group has been set up.

When we were clearing up I took some general photos with my own point-and-shoot camera just so I had something to record from this morning's activity. And also so I had something to post on Blipfoto, of course!