Clitheroe Castle Festival of Archaeology and Community Hub Day

Celebrate the Festival of Archaeology 2025 with a brand-new archaeology exhibition in the museum and then join the festival hub for a special day celebrating all things archaeological.

Meet local archaeologists and experts who will be on hand to answer your questions and share their knowledge.  There will be specialists in a range of eras from prehistory all the way to the industrial era, and in a variety of fields like artifact conservation and archaeological technologies.  Find out how community archaeologists are contributing to our knowledge about the Romans in the Ribble Valley, see weapons demonstrations with Acadamie Glorianna, listen to students tell you what it's like to study archaeology at university, and find out what new insight we have about life at Clitheroe Castle since new archaeological work has been done at the keep, and much more.  

You can drop in throughout the day.  This year, guests include:
Ribble Valley Archaeology.
Portable Antiquities Finds Liaison Officers, Lancashire & Cumbria.
Lancashire Archives & Collections Studios.
Slaidburn Archives.
Acadamie Glorianna.
Professional Archaeologist Pascal Eloy.
Local historians.
and students currently studying archaeology at the University of Central Lancashire.

While you're meeting the archaeologists, check out the 'Corner of Curiosity' in the Archaeology Hub and 'Rooms of Discovery' in the old stable block, fun zones where kids can play ancient games, discover artefacts in a dig pit, dress-up in historical costumes and do archaeology-themed crafts amd activities.

Earn a junior archaeologist certificate and sticker by completing a checklist of archaeology-themed tasks and do a bonus Find the Artefact task in the museum to enter a competition to win a special archaeology-themed goodie bag.  Back by popular demand is the Castle Archaeology Tour.  Spaces are limited so please see the tour event record for details of how to reserve your place.

There's lots of family friendly fun across the festival, so why not roll up your sleeves and book your young archaeologists onto one of the kids archaeology workshops.  Adults, too, can get their hands dirty in a Prehistoric Pottery Workshop and Talk for Grown-Ups, see event record for details.