Wick-IA2018-booking-form Wick 2018 tour programme

A conference on industrial archaeology took place in the North Highlands on 22-27 June 2018. For the outline programme please click at the second heading above. The Scottish Industrial Heritage Society and the Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group are among the partners in delivering the conference. We have been working towards this with local providers and local and national heritage groups for several years. Booking details are at the link above. For those that required it, we arranged coach transport from Inverness to Wick and back, besides tours in Caithness and a day in Orkney. You can now pay by cheque or by BACS to Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group http://www.svbwg.org.uk/events.html or you may go to the Engine Shed and  book by eventbrite

In the 50th Year of the Foundation of Euratom (members being the EU and Switzerland) we looked at approaches taken towards documenting the heritage of Dounreay. We saw active lighthouses, stone quarries and engineering industries, besides many beautiful vernacular fishing stations, harbours, doocots, and corn mills. We accessed the diesel power station in Kirkwall (1953) and a private domestic power station in a water mill of 18KW (1935). This event contributed to the European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018 promoted by Europa Nostra.

The Saturday programme of lectures in Wick is now available at this link. A key lecture on the role of Caithness in the defences of Scapa Flow is sponsored by the Association for Industrial Archaeology. Other sponsors are indicated in that programme. Our guests for the conference dinner on Saturday are Lord and Lady Thurso, and the dress code is business informal.

Exhibitions. There is room for more display tables in Wick Baptist Church on 23 June. Please note that a longer-running exhibition on Industrial Heritage of Caithness is displayed 10 June- 10 July in Caithness Horizons in Thurso

Amendments to the tours: tour H is almost full so others booking that will be invited to go on tour G. Tour H now goes into Dounreay, and this requires security information about participants well in advance. The speed boat excursion to Whaligoe will run in the evening from and back to Wick, not that morning. Those who paid extra for that as a morning element of tour J will have priority, but others may now book into that too, and the day tour J will be able to fit in more sights. We will combine tours K and L so that everyone sees Dunrobin Castle grounds, then those who wish and have booked will have train fares bought for the 14.40 train from Dunrobin to arrive in Inverness at 17.01 on Wednesday 27 June.

Further information from Mark