Marriage in Ruins	Volume 54 Number 3, May/June 2001
by Kristin M. Romey

(Courtesy Niall Hardie-Hammond) [LARGER IMAGE]

What better present for an archaeologist than a ruined castle?" asks Niall Hardie-Hammond. The British archaeologist presented his wife Caroline, also an archaeologist, with the deed to the crumbling thirteenth-century Scargill Castle in County Durham on their wedding day. The groom purchased the castle for $150, and the couple plan to restore it with a grant from English Heritage. Says the elated bride: "Niall is quite a romantic soul but this was by far his finest hour where that is concerned." Niall's gift may in fact be a blunder, given the impossibly high standard he has set for anniversary presents.

© 2001 by the Archaeological Institute of America archive.archaeology.org/0105/newsbriefs/marriage.html