Earlier in 2020, our Creativity Club explored the secrets of The St Ninian's Isle Treasure, by creating their own ending to the archaeological finds through short stories, pictures and collage.
Many years ago someone carefully buried a hoard of treasure under the floor in the Pictish chapel on St Ninian's Isle. The treasure was a very valuable collection including silver dishes, jewelry and parts of weapons, they probably belonged to the church or to a very wealthy local family.
The objects were made around 1200 years ago and were buried with a porpoise bone in a wooden box under the stone slabs of the floor. The slab they were buried under was marked with a cross. They may have been buried during the end of the Pictish period for safekeeping, possibly even to protect them from a Viking raid. They may also have been buried a few hundred years later after being kept carefully as they show a lot of evidence of wear. Burying precious things was used as a good way to keep them safe before banks existed.
They were found again in 1958 by local schoolboy Douglas Coutts when the chapel was being excavated.
Our Fact to Fiction participants spoke to local historian Laurie Goodlad before working with Jane Cockayne and Jono Sandilands to produce their own art and creative writing to fill in the gaps from their imagination!