A call has gone out for citizen archaeologists along the coast of Courier country to record their surroundings before they are lost to history.
Conservation charity Scape has been conducting coastal surveys on Historic Scotland’s behalf since 2001.
An inventory of sorts has been kept since 1996 but the charity has asked for help in cataloguing the status of sites, especially those at threat of toppling into the sea.
A wealth of history lies on the shores of the Mearns, Angus and Fife, and Scape is asking people to grab their cameras, mobile phones and other recording devices to update the Coastal Zone Assessment Surveys.
Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk Project manager Joanna Hambly told The Courier: ”The issue on any coast is that things can change very quickly. One very big storm can cause great changes to sites of interest, like the uncovering of pre-medieval human remains.
”Because of this we rely on people telling us what changes are occurring since they were last surveyed. Surveys have only been done on 40% of Scotland’s coastal area and 12,000 sites have been surveyed. Around 940 are both at high risk of loss and important.
”When citizen archaeologist data comes in we’ll select at least 12 sites based on their importance to communities, including sites eligible for excavation, survey and possibly improving access.”
Android phone app ShoreUpdate shows all 12,000 sites.
One of the sites identified as being in serious danger is the 15th-century Kaim of Mathers at St Cyrus beach.
Red Castle at Lunan and Lud Castle, Arbroath, are both close to the sea and in advanced stages of ruin.
In Fife an area of prehistoric landscape lies uncomfortably close to the Tay and much of the long cist burial site at Lundin Links has already been swept into the Forth.
For more information visit scharp.co.uk.