Dunbeath Outing - 3rd September 2000

The Field Club met at Dunbeath on Sunday morning  to be guided around the Harbour, Ice-House and Bothy by Nan Bethune.  After a quick lunch in the Heritage Centre, we were shown the runic stone currently stirring up some controversy because of its mix of Viking, Anglo-Saxon and Germanic characters (see photo) and some interesting professionally worked carvings discovered in the walls of Nan's old farm buildings by her husband George. The group then went up the neat and tidy path ("Balmoralised", she called it) by the side of the river to the broch opposite these buildings, pausing at various points to listen to Nan telling us about various local historical facts both universally accepted and still under discussion.  One of the more contentious items was the precise function of the large wall enclosing a substantial area around an ancient burial centre called the House of Peace, which had been much devastated by a flash flood.  There was also a sprinkling of nature-spotting going on, culminating with our finding two slow-worms on top of the second broch visited, quite a bit further up the strath. The scenery was, as ever, breath-taking.