By Cathy Dagg The following are some musings based on recent visits to some of the shieling structures of North Harris and South Lewis, unusually different from those in the mainland Highlands. There’s no original research involved and I am relying heavily on the notes and plans of previous archaeologists and amateurs who have also ..read more

by Marion Ruscoe Our towns and cities are surrounded by farms which have been in existence, in some cases, for many hundreds of years.  They are all vulnerable to urban development and over the last 50 years Inverness has spread in all directions, swallowing up many farms to the east and south.  The latest development project to the east of Inverness is at Chapelton Farm, Balloch. Chapelton Farm, photographed in 2020 Chapelton Farm lay between Culloden and Balloch, south of Balloch Farm (originally called Balnaglag Farm) and owes its name to the site of St. Mary’s Chapel (MHG2890) wh ..read more

by Eric Grant 2023 excavations in Trench 2B In 2017 the Tarradale Through Time project excavated a shell midden (known as site 2B) located on a raised beach terrace at the foot of a palaeo-cliff  about 150 m south-east of Tarradale House, see previous blog post.  In September to October 2023 the site was revisited by the Tarradale Archaeological Team in order to continue the earlier investigation The original 2017 excavation trench was approximately 8 m x 6 m and revealed a complex sequence of marine shell midden deposits comprising mussel, cockle, periwinkle, oyster, whelk along wit ..read more

by Marion Ruscoe When I first started looking at the site of the Saltwater Mill at Petty Bay, I was writing a general survey of industry in Petty Parish (2019).  I discovered that there was very little primary evidence for the mill and access to the site was not easy.  In fact, at the time, I couldn’t see how to get down to the site, since the Castle Stuart Golf Course had taken over the area to the north of the Church and fenced the course in.  It was only when Scape visited in 2022 that I finally managed to see for myself exactly where the mill had been situated.  At that ..read more

From the written evidence of secondary sources and maps on the maps.nls and Scotlandspeople websites by Meryl Marshall Background In the years before the 18th Century the Highlands were regarded as a hostile backward country, travelling was difficult, there were few visitors and many journeys were made by boat. In 1793 George Brown reported that, The most necessary and useful line of road betwixt East and West Sea through the four Northern Counties of Scotland […] is a line across the county of Ross from the town of Dingwall on the head of the Cromarty Firth, to Poolewe on the west coast by C ..read more

by Marion Ruscoe 1st ed. 25” OS map (NLS)  Petty Bay lies approximately 5 miles east of Inverness.  Today it’s bypassed by the A96, but a map of 1798 shows that the original road from Inverness to Ardersier and Fort George looped off the Inverness-Nairn route at Allanfearn and joined the present B9039 at Castle Stuart Farm. The 1st edition 25” Ordnance Survey map indicates a track running down between Castle Stuart and Castle Stuart Farm, and following the coast out to the point. The area was clearly much busier than it is today. The Old Statistical Account (OSA) notes that there are ..read more

by Jonathan Wordsworth The following is an addendum to the previous Carn Glas blog post of July 2023. Drone image of Carn Glas after clearance of gorse looking north to Inverness and Moray Firth ©AHickie It took two more days of work in August to clear the remaining gorse scrub off the cairn to reveal the monument in its glory.  With funding from Historic Environment Scotland we were able to get contractors to shred much of the cut waste, though a substantial amount of gorse remains outside the cairn on the east side. We were fortunate to get Andy Hickie to fly his drone over the cleaned ..read more

by Richard Guest Investigating a possible crannog at Loch Morie, June 2023 Almost three years has passed since the inception of the NOSAS Crannogs project, one sunny post-lockdown afternoon sitting around my patio maintaining a 2-metre separation, unable to meet inside but mightily pleased to be chatting face to face instead of by zoom.  Who had even heard of zoom before lockdown?  We hatched a cunning plan – to search satellite images for islands which might prove to be unrecorded crannogs.  Surely there must be lots of them, secreted away in remote glens where archaeologists r ..read more

by Roland Spencer-Jones This remote loch is far from any normal vehicular access. The boundary between Attadale and Pait estates runs roughly SW-NE through the middle of the loch. Approach routes to the loch are from Pait on Loch Monar to the NE, Attadale towards the head of Loch Carron in the W, and Killilan via Strath Duilleach and the Iron Lodge to the SW. There are three islands in the loch, two of which are of interest. OS maps showing location of Loch Tachdaidh Historic Environment Scotland’s Canmore (ID 12075) and Highland Council Historic Environment Record (MHG44808 [Causeway] & M ..read more

by Roland Spencer-Jones Does every excavation and discovery have a story behind it? Maybe. This one certainly does. When did the story start? With shepherds moving into empty land in the early 19th century? With the gradual depopulation of Highland glens in the early half of the 20th century? With the construction of the largest dam in Scotland completed in 1952? Maybe it’s best to start this story in early July 2021 with a walker and cyclist, Glenn Wilks, venturing into the remote west end of Loch Mullardoch. This large reservoir loch was created from two previous lochs, Lungard and Mullardoc ..read more