Why do you read this blog?

No archaeology in this post I’m afraid. Instead a request to participate in some interesting research on behalf of a master’s student from Leiden University.

Fleur Schinning is conducting research into the reasons why people read archaeological blogs, with a view to seeing whether they improve the accessibility of the subject. She has created a short online questionnaire at http://goo.gl/forms/z3BAUTyYUL. You can preview the questionnaire in pdf form here. Participants are promised the chance to win 6 copies of Archaeology Magazine.

We will also have the chance to see the results of Fleur’s research when it is complete. Hopefully this will provide some useful insights into how to make the blog even better!

Finding the Kinrara Bobbin Mill

by Ann Wakeling (NOSAS)

A long time ago Meryl Marshall sent me a picture of some old wooden sheds which might have been workshops, and some houses, situated in scattered birch woodland. The caption had ‘Kinrara Bobbin Mill’, did I know where it was?

Checking the HER (MHG 23895) produced a Bobbin Mill with a grid ref NH 8700 0800, on Kinrara Estate. This is the intersection of grid lines meaning the site should be somewhere in that kilometer square. Most of the square is taken up by Tor Alvie, a steep sided hill, not very promising for an industrial site, the low ground is occupied by Kinrara House, which has been there since about 1804, and has well established pine woods.

A look at the First Edition reminded me that the area now known as Inshriach was formerly known as ‘South Kinrara’. The map (1871) shows South Kinrara, and a little to the east of it is ‘Bobbin mill’ . It has gone by the time of the second edition in 1903. I tried the O.S. Name Books, and failed to find the Bobbin Mill, Alvie is scattered over several volumes, mixed up with the surrounding parishes. I did find its next door neighbour though, South Kinrara Farm. “A farm house with numerous offices attached, the former thatched & in good repair the latter partly slated, partly thatched and also in good repair. Property of McIntosh of McIntosh.”

O.S. 1st Edition 1871

O.S. 2nd Edition 1903