Bev and Hylda discovered the site
We discovered the site during the winter of 2008/2009. We took no compass, no GPS, no camera, no measuring equipment and had no map references. Despite this we set off with an aerial photograph of an area close to Baliscate supplied by Scotland's Rural Past (SRP). We had been shown how aerial photographs could show features on the ground so we decided to have a go and see what we could find. We saw shapes on the aerial and went looking for them in the woods - eventually we spotted the ruins of the large square enclosure.
Having invited SRP to visit the site in March 2008 they said it could be a chapel. We felt we wanted to take it further, but where could we go? Time Team is a programme we love watching and it would be a dream come true if we could get them interested.
We worded our initial enquiry on the Time Team website very carefully to get the Team interested, but the email would not send! We were so frustrated we copied and pasted the contents into a letter and posted it straight away. We were so keen to get their interest we forgot to put contact details in the letter! Thankfully they wrote back.
We were thrilled when we found out Time Team were going to consider the dig. When the first meeting was held in March to assess the site we were hoping it wasn't going to be too difficult to reach or not be interesting enough to make a programme about. We were over the moon when it was confirmed that the Team were going come and in May.
It was an incredible three days when the Team worked on the site - we loved it. Everyone on Time Team was great, the whole thing was fascinating, exciting, interesting, it felt like we were on an adventure holiday and the food was good too! The most exciting discovery was the burial under the chapel wall of what must have been a very important religious person. Thankfully it would help to provide a date for the chapel and even show that there may have been a monastery on the site.
We would most definitely invite Time Team back, although we would be surprised if we found something more amazing than this.
