Our field school team is made of experts in archaeology, excavation, monastic history, landscape, and heritage studies.
Alison I. Beach
Alison is based at the University of St Andrews and is our field school coordinator for Lindores.
She is an internationally recognized expert on medieval monasticism and has over ten years experience in field work and excavation of monastic sites in Ireland, Iceland, and Scotland. She is the director of the St Andrews Centre for Archaeology, Technology, and History (CATH), and is co-founder of the Monastic Archaeology Field School (MAFS).
Derek Hall
Derek is an independent archaeological contractor (Derek Hall, archaeologist and ceramic specialist) with over forty nine years of experience in the field. For this project, he will operate as the Site Manager and the Head Archaeologist being responsible for the on-site direction of the excavations. He is also co-founder of the Monastic Archaeology Field School (MAFS).
He is a specialist in medieval pottery, with extensive research interests in medieval hospitals, medieval religious houses, and monastic archaeology. He studied at the Dorset Institute of Higher Education (Weymouth), gaining a Certificate in Practical Archaeology (1978). From 1976 -1980, he worked on archaeological sites throughout Scotland and England, including one of the first urban rescue excavations in Scotland in advance of the Elgin Relief road. In 1980, he joined the Urban Archaeology Unit, the predecessor of SUAT and from 1982-1985 he was a Senior Supervisor for SUAT on several major excavations before being appointed Field Officer. From 2014-2019 single handily excavated Perth’s Carmelite Friary in advance of the site’s redevelopment!
Dar Brooks Hedstrom
Dar is based at Brandeis University, MA and is another one of our Lead Archaeologists.
She has over twenty years of experience in field work. She is an archaeologist and historian of ancient and early Byzantine Christianity of the eastern Mediterranean world (circa 300-1000 CE) with a specialization in the archaeology and history of monasticism. Her work combines texts, material culture, and theory to examine the history of monastic makers of late antique objects and spaces.
Kimm Curran
Kimm is our landscape, heritage, and engagement lead. She is also one of the co-founders of the Monastic Archaeology Field School (MAFS).
She is a historian of late medieval monastic and religious life, with particular expertise in late medieval Scottish monasticism, and medieval women religious. Her work looks at the development of monasteries in medieval landscapes, as well as theoretical and experiential approaches. She has experience in accessible heritage, especially how neurodivergent people experience places, and heritage.
Honorary field team members
Lindores Distillery’s Abbey Cats
Working Mousers and Trench Supervisors
Monastic Archaeology Field School - Scotland 