Several young people have benefited from their experiences in the Finds Room this year: two pupils from schools outwith the local authority approached us in order to obtain work experience in archaeology, which we have been happy to supply. One pupil from Perth and Kinross has also enjoyed a short programme with SUAT.

SUAT is always a popular choice for ‘Take your child to work day’. This year, Carol Milne’s son Ian honed his data-inputting skills, transferring muddy hand-written site records into a more readable format.

In addition, we welcomed back Katie Poulter, who has now graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in archaeology. Katie proved to be a ‘dab hand’ at archiving and will be missed. A student from Norway, Julie Skog, has also been a lucky addition to our volunteer squad, and she is now employed until Christmas to help deal with the large collection of unwashed skeletons from Ballumbie.

We also hosted another New Deal placement, and were sorry to part with Sapphire Sherwood at the end of her time with us. Sapphire’s artistic talents were of great help in preparing for the various child-friendly outreach events attended by SUAT this year.