Looking ahead to the past in Inverness

This week Inverness will host the first annual meeting of Scotland's Rural Past, a five-year project to investigate and record Scotland's rural heritage.

The project, being led by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), takes into account the amount of evidence that still survives of the pre-industrialised countryside. This includes ruined buildings, farmsteads, townships, field systems, earthworks, boundary dykes, limekilns and sheepfolds.

Until recently, farming was the backbone of Scotland's economy and culture. Countless generations of rural communities worked the land and shaped the countryside seen today. This rural way of life has now almost vanished, leaving only the fading remains of their farms, townships and fields. Evidence of this past is seen in the ruins of the settlements they left behind and in the subtle signs which remain in the landscape.

A new website www.scotlandsruralpast.org.uk will be launched at the conference in Inverness on Sunday 14 October, that marks the end of Highland Archaeology Fortnight.

Most archaeological studies have been more concerned with earlier periods in Scottish history but Scotland's Rural Past aims to improve understanding, valuing and care of historic rural settlements for the benefits of current and future generations.

Funded by the RCAHMS, Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the National Trust for Scotland, the project will work with local communities across Scotland to discover and record abandoned rural settlements.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is contributing £100,000 over the five year life of the initiative. John Watt, director of strengthening communities at HIE, said: "Scotland's Rural Past offers real benefits to communities for members of the public to work together in areas such as architecture, local history, oral traditions, ecology and environment. It is also an opportunity for people to contribute their local knowledge about the folklore and history of rural settlements."

Over the next five years, at least 40 local projects will be set up across every region of Scotland to document the location and condition of these abandoned rural settlements and promote their future conservation. The project has received an enthusiastic response so far and already has a database of over 300 potential volunteers. Around 100 of these have received training and 11 new projects have started, with a further six in the pipeline, due to start by spring 2008.

The project's aims are delivered by a team of four staff who are organising a programme of locally-based projects and training courses backed by a range of awareness-raising exercises.

Tertia Barnett, project manager for Scotland's Rural Past said: "To understand this rural history we need to locate and investigate these settlements before they disappear forever and their story is lost. Over the next five years, at least forty local projects will be set up across every region of Scotland to document the location and condition of these abandoned rural settlements and promote their future conservation."