Alan Duffy ACIFA

Project Officer (Fieldwork)

Alan has over 40 years of archaeological experience in England and Scotland. From 1983 until 1992 Alan worked primarily on projects for Historic Scotland as an archaeologist but also with responsibilities including data management and assistant supervisor. Alan joined AOC Archaeology in 1992 and has been involved in numerous watching briefs, evaluations and excavations on a wide range of sites. He has also worked within the post excavation sector, where he has undertaken the supervision of sample processing and finds processing, and also the identification of charcoal and waterlogged wood. He also works with AOC’s dendrochronologist, where he takes part in on-site sampling, and sample preparation. During the period 1995 to 2006 he undertook annual survey work for the Environmentally Sensitive Areas project where he was latterly responsible for the data management and archiving of the project. From 1995 to 2008 he managed the archiving and finds disposal process for all Scottish sites. Alan also takes part in AOC’s Public Archaeology projects, most notably as a team member on the Assynt Hidden Lives project and various projects in Caithness, including the partial reconstruction of a broch. More recently he has supervised the excavation of a fragment of Medieval ditch in the centre of Edinburgh and also the excavation of the remains of a late 18th/early 19th century Mill in Derbyshire. Over the last few years he has taken part in a number of large scale infrastructure projects as the senior archaeologist, including a water pipeline project, Birmingham Resilience Project (BRP), a 50KM gas pipeline in Dumfries & Galloway, and most recently the HS2 project. He also assisted in the recent A9 Dualling Project. Alan is an Associate of the Institute of Field Archaeologists

Selected Publications

Duffy, A et al 1991 ‘The Roman Temporary Camp at Auchtermuchty, Fife’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 122, 183-7. 

Barber, J, Duffy, A & O’Sullivan, J 1996 ‘The excavation of two Bronze Age burial cairns at Bu Farm, Rapness, Westray, Orkney’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 126, 103-20. 

Duffy, A 1998 ‘Charcoal samples’, in Rees, T 'Excavation of Cairnwell Ring-Cairn, Portlethen', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 127, 255-280.

 Duffy, A  2000 ‘Charcoal and waterlogged wood analysis’, in Haselgove, C & McCullagh, R (eds) An Iron Age coastal community in East Lothian: the excavation of two later prehistoric enclosure complexes at Fishers Road, Port Seton, 1994-5. Edinburgh: STAR Monog Ser 5. 

Crone, A & Duffy, A 2002 ‘Charcoal’, 74-5 in Cook, M ‘Excavations of an Early Historic settlement within a multi-period landscape at Dolphinton, South Lanarkshire’, Scot Archaeol J 24.1, 61-83.