MRS TRACY BROOK

Biography

I am a recent graduate of the University of Aberdeen with an Honours degree in MA Archaeology. My research interests include the archaeology of the agricultural improvements in eighteenth and nineteenth-century northeast Scotland, and my undergraduate dissertation focused on the social networks and economic relationships surrounding the use of the horsedrawn whin mill machine. 

External Memberships

Chartered Institute for Archaeology, Student Member

Archaeology Scotland, Student Member

Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group, Student Member

Chartered Institute of Taxation, Associate Member

Prizes and Awards

Archaeology Scotland:

• Runner-up prize for best undergraduate dissertation (February 2025)

University of Aberdeen:

• Caroline Wickham-Jones Prize in Archaeology (June 2024)
• Distinguished Achievement at Level 3 Archaeology (June 2023)
• Distinguished Achievement at First Year Archaeology (June 2021)
• Judith Hook Prize in Cultural History (June 2021)

Current Research

PhD: A place to call home? An archaeological study of farmworker accommodation in Improvement-era northeast Scotland

My research uses bothies and chaumers as a lens to explore the inner workings of the Improvement-era capitalist farm in northeast Scotland, including how rural social inequalities, a feature of the new landscapes of capitalism, were maintained and reinforced. 

Supervisors:

Dr Jeff Oliver

Dr Elisabeth Niklasson

PhD objectives:

• To investigate the extent to which bothies/chaumers fostered relations of social inequality and wage labouring identities, as traditional rural life was transformed by enclosure, shifts in land ownership and agricultural mechanisation
• To determine what evidence supports the notion that chaumers were the main form of farmworker accommodation in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, while in Kincardineshire the bothy predominated
• To analyse the relationship between bothies/chaumers and the rest of the farmyard, and consider how their form, function and development evolved during the improvement period and beyond
• To use spatial archaeology and household archaeology techniques to assist in understanding how bothy/chaumer space was used on a day-to-day basis and how occupants made the best of challenging circumstances
• To contrast the bothy ballads, with their rich folklore, with day-to-day bothy life. Do the ballads possess idealised or romanticised patterns and does the archaeology provide alternative narratives?
• To investigate what evidence is available to support the notion that bothies/chaumers were ‘men only’ spaces

By using a historical archaeology framework for my research, I aim to bridge the gap between material remains and written records in order to uncover the overlooked contributions and everyday lives of farmworkers during a period of rapid agricultural change

Past Research

MA Project: ‘The archaeology of whin mills in post-medieval northeast Scotland’.

I completed a programme of field investigation and desk-based research to determine the extent of whin mill preservation in northeast Scotland. I explored the social and economic history of these machines, and the networks arising from their use, to further understand their importance in historic husbandry and subsistence practices, and my research filled a gap in the exploration of these horsedrawn machines.

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