Archaeology/ Gaelic

Archaeology and Gaelic is a combination that makes profound sense in a Scottish university context, bringing together the scientific investigation of the past with the living linguistic heritage of the Gaelic-speaking communities whose ancestors left many of the monuments, objects, and landscapes that archaeology studies. Archaeology is the study of how people in the past interacted with their world through their objects, sites, monuments, and landscapes, using material evidence to reconstruct societies and ways of life that left no written record or whose written record is incomplete. Gaelic opens access to a linguistic and cultural tradition that stretches back across Scotland's medieval and early modern history and continues into the present.

At Glasgow you will study this four-year full-time programme with a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study in a different archaeological and cultural environment and to encounter Gaelic language and culture in contexts beyond the university campus. Across the degree you will develop practical archaeological field skills alongside the theoretical knowledge required to interpret what you find. Your study of Gaelic will take you from language acquisition through to the literature, history, and culture of the Gaelic world, developing your linguistic and textual abilities alongside your archaeological training.

The combination produces graduates with a distinctive dual expertise rooted in Scotland's own landscape and heritage.

Graduates of this combination work in archaeology and heritage, including roles in excavation, survey, heritage management, conservation, and museum curation. The Gaelic component opens specific doors in Gaelic language education, broadcasting, community cultural development, and the public and voluntary sector organisations that support Gaelic language and culture. Postgraduate study in archaeology, Celtic studies, Scottish studies, or heritage management is a natural progression for those who wish to develop a specialism or pursue research.