Discover more - videos

Watch videos about archaeology, community engagement, research, learning and teaching, wildlife, planting plans and land use.

Logie Homestead archaeology dig

This exciting discovery concerns Logie Homestead, which is a substantial roundhouse, perhaps two to 3,000-years-old, that's on the south facing slopes, overlooking Stirling, right next to the homestead was one cultivation terrace.

We've been here for the last two, three days, and we've actually found seven or eight cultivation terraces.

An enormous discovery, cultivation terraces are like raised beds.

The create terraces on the side of the hill to plant crops and to take advantage of the south facing slope, the extra warmth in the sun.

Now, who builds them? We don't know. How old are they? We don't know. Are they related to the Logie homestead?

That's one possibility.

A far more exciting one is a hill fort about half an hour from here, half an hour's walk, Dumyat.

That's an older name.

That means Dun Maeatae. 

Maeatae are first named in Roman sources around 180 200 AD, and we know that they fight the Roman Empire. Are these Maeatae cultivation slopes?

Is this a kind of a 2,000-year-old farm on the side of the hill?

We don't know.

However, It's a new discovery.

That's why we're clearing the bracken, and we're doing a series of small scale excavations to try and recover dating evidence from the cultivation terraces to link it to either Logie Homestead or to Dumyat.

So everyone here, including myself is a volunteer, we're just local people.

We're interested in our past, and actually telling the story of our ancestors in this spot that for the last 30 years has lain under bracken, unnoticed and untold.

Being a responsible landowner

In this one minute, 32 second video, Yvonne Edwards, Forest Development Manager, explains the University's thought-through plans for carbon sequestration and nature restoration in Scotland.

Green Lairdism is often used as a term to talk about when somebody buys a piece of land and then doesn't involve others in the decision making, and maybe uses it just for one purpose.

So sustainable land management means that you have to have objectives for biodiversity, objectives for the community, and in the case of the University of Edinburgh and the land here at Drumbrae, we've bought the land to mitigate against climate change, but only to sequester carbon that cannot be mitigated in any other way.

So, for instance, you know, we will be decarbonising our buildings and our vehicles, but students and researchers by 2040 will likely still have to fly in and out of the country and we need to find a way to mitigate those carbon emissions, and take responsibility for those carbon emissions.

And here we're going to do that by investing in natural capital in Scotland.

So native woodland, different types of woodland, and in other sites our peatland restoration as well.

And involving the community in these sites in what you're doing will help us not be a Green Laird, because here the community has told us that they wanted to know about the heritage, they wanted to work on the different native plants here.

And our community ranger will be here to do that.

How are communities getting involved?

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In this one minute, 30 second video, Community Ranger, Julie Wilson, tells us how she has been getting to know the area and talking to local community groups at Drumbrae.

Research, learning and teaching opportunities

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In this one minute, 35 second video, Dr Annie Yang, Forest and Peatland Academic Manager, talks through some of the opportunities for research on the sites we are restoring.

How will this benefit wildlife?

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In this 37 second video, Community Ranger, Julie Wilson, tells us about rare plants being restored at Drumbrae and hopes for red squirrels exploring the newly connected woodland in the future.

Planting plans

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In this one minute, 23 second video, Yvonne Edwards, Forest, Peat and Rural Land Manager, explains plans for restoring nature and planting trees at Drumbrae, the University of Edinburgh's site in Stirling.

What was the land previously used for?

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In this 36 second video, Yvonne Edwards, Forest, Peat and Rural Land Manager, explains due diligence to ensure that large amounts of arable land aren't used for tree planting.

Why are we planting trees in straight lines?

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In this 35 second video, Yvonne Edwards, Forest, Peat and Rural Land Manager, explains how trees are planted to follow the contours of the hills to create a naturalistic-looking woodland once mature.