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Caithness A Rover Of Stone Pdf
By Professor John Barbor
River Of Stone
AOC Archaeology Group has joined forces
with the Caithness Archaeological Trust in a bid to encourage regional
economic benefit from the archaeology of Caithness. The exciting River of
Stone project follows the feasibility study completed by AOC Archaeology
Group and the Caithness Archaeological Trust, supported by funding from
Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise, which outlines the advantages of
working with communities to promote the fascinating history of sites as a
way of adding to a region’s attraction as a place to visit or live. The
River of Stone Project is thus founded on a sophisticated analysis of the
number, location, diversity, cultural value and accessibility of the 6,500
sites and monuments in the region, correlated with local community heritage
groups and existing heritage initiatives.
Battlemoss 2005
Nybster Broch 2005
19 July 05
Archaeology Projects Around Caithness Making More
Discoveries - And You Can Be Part Of It
 The
Chambered Cairn Project At Spittal is a practical exercise in
archaeology involving experts and the local community. It is open
to the public to visit or to join in and has open days. If you
have a few hours and want to see what it is like doing something
practical you can join in this reconstruction project. the
chambered cairn project is building a new chambered cairn. In
addition the team are building a part of broch based partly on the Mousa
and Gurness brochs. Another reconstruction is also underway and
more will be done depending on numbers of people attending to help move
the stones. Don't worry about moving huge stones as you will be
assessed , given instruction and supervised and children move only
smaller stones. Children must have an adult with them. You
need no previous experience and many local people have already had a go.
So here is your chance to step back into the shoes of your ancestors and
find out what building something in stone was really like. Even if you
do not fancy doing any work the team are happy to see people and explain
what is going on so take the chance while it is on until early August.
On every day except Sundays Open Day Sat 23 July.
Today
12 August 04
Learable Hill - Strath Of Kildonan
Sutherland - A Mini Adventure Back
In Time
 Caithness
Field Club stepped back in time once
more on a short walk over and round
parts of Learable Hill in the Strath
Of Kildonan, Sutherland on Sunday 8
August. The walk is quite
short and three or four miles will
take your round most of the
interesting places to see.
What's there? You might well
ask what is not there.
Everything from the remains of the
village of Learable farm houses,
corn drying kilns, and earlier
standing stones with markings, stone
rows, hut circles and much more.
Take the sheets from the Canmore
database with you to help locate
everything and you can have an
interesting day in the fresh air
finding all of the places. an
easy walk up not too steep a hill
with commanding views in each
direction of the Strath of Kildonan.
If you have driven through the
Strath and viewed its emptiness and
wondered if anything ever happened
here. Learbale Hill will help
put you right showing a once
thriving area with significant
population at several periods in its
history and now lying empty except
for the deer and the birds.
13 July 04
Building a Chambered Cairn at Spittal 10 -
30 July 2004
by the Caithness Archaeological Trust (CAT) and Dr John Barber AOC
Archaeology Group
 Would You Like To Help
Build the Chambered Cairn?
Head For Spittal Quarry 9.30am Any Day Mon - Saturday
Other events and Special Children's Days
17 & 24 between 10.00 and 4.00
A Talk On
Monday 19th July 8.00pm at Spittal Village
Hall
The Caithness Archaeological
Trust (CAT) is delighted to announce that between 10th and 30th July
(excluding Sundays) we will be building parts of a chambered cairn at
Spittal. The chambered cairn parts will be constructed at the
quarry run by A & D Sutherland. If you
do not want to lift stones just come along
for a look.
31 March 04
Scottish Society For Northern Studies -
Annual Study Conference 5 - 9 April 2004
60 members of the society will hold
their annual study conference in Caithness
this year beginning on 5 April. They
will take part in a series of visits to
Caithness sites and attend lectures on a
variety of topics throughout the conference.
The conference is based at the Portland
Hotel, Lybster with members staying at a
variety of locations along the east coast of
Caithness. lectures are variously in the
mornings and evenings. The society
have invited members of the
public to join them for any lectures that
are of interest to them at the Portland
Hotel. Places can be booked by
contacting Andy Heald, Caithness Archaeology Trust.
19 October
03
Yarrows Trail Walk To End Archaeology Week
Marina Finlayson, Highland Ranger led a small group round the Yarrows
Archaeologiclal Trail. The trail takes in a range of sites from the large
broch site at Loch Yarrows to hut circles cairns and standing stones and
much in between with Marina identifying a variety of plants and birds along
the way. the path is now in great condition with strong flagstone paving
over the boggy parts.....
16 October
03
Cairn Of Get Walk Pictures September 03
2 September
03
COUNCIL SETS CHALLENGE FOR ARCHAEOLOGY WEEK
To celebrate the tenth
Highland Archaeology Week (11th-19th October 2003),
The Highland Council’s Archaeology Unit has issued a major challenge
throughout the month of September to all archaeological enthusiasts in the
area.
The challenge is to expand the wealth of public information on the Highland
Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) held by the Council’s Planning and
Development Service where it will be available for local and national
researchers in the future.
Anyone adopting the challenge is asked to send in information about unknown
sites of archaeological interest along with photographs of the sites and
location details to the Council for inclusion in the SMR. The results will
be announced and prizes awarded at the Highland Archaeology Week Seminar
held on the Royal Highland Hotel, Inverness on the 18th October.
12 August 03
Battle Moss Excavation Underway 9 -
28 August 2003
 The
excavation of the stone rows at Battlemoss, Loch of Yarrows, Caithness got
underway and we will be following progress with updates from archaeologist
Amelia Pannet. This is the first time a set of stone rows in Caithness
has been excavated and may produce a range of information about these
intriguing features scattered across the landscape in Caithness and the
north. Archaeologists, Students and volunteers are all busy at Battle
Moss but the public are encouraged to visit the site to have a look at what
is happening.
7 July 2003
Battlemoss Excavation 9 - 28
August 2003
The stone rows at Battlemoss, Loch of Yarrows
excavation is being undertaken by a team comprising students from both
Glasgow and Cardiff Universities, as well as local volunteers. Anyone
interested in volunteering to help with the excavation is welcome to come
along and training will be given. Anyone interested should contact
Islay Macleod, Thrumster. visitors will be welcome at the site Mondays
to Saturday between 10.00am and 4.00pm. An Open Day will be announced
later.
More Questions
than Answers - Mike Clark
Saint Mary’s Chapel at Crosskirk is well photographed and documented.
Much less seems to be recorded of the Broch to the north of the Chapel. And
what has been recorded is full of contradictions. Today, the site is marked
by a mere cairn. Erosion over the years has lost the Broch to the sea –
allegedly.
Caithness has huge numbers
of archaeological sites and almost all of them have not been seriously
investigated by digs. Very few of them are sign posted or have
interpretational material around them. Check a map and you will see
many references to the past. If visiting the county ask a few local
people about what is there. You may be surprised.
Caithness.org will gradually highlight more of the huge numbers of sites
in the county but this will take a long time - so just ask if you wish to
visit and stand in a remote and strangely easy to feel and see how it was
thousands of years ago. Caithness is empty now compared to the
past. Even fifty years ago the population was over 45,000. Now
it is 27,000. What was it thousands of years ago with a different
climate, trees and lots of wild life. Stand in areas with no site of
modernity and wonder.
2 November 2001
Proposed Caithness
Archaeology Trust - New Section Set Up
11 September 2001
Mesolithic Discovery On Thrumster
Estate
Everley 2002
Everley Broch at 11 August 2001
Major
Archeological Dig On Caithness Broch to Begin July 2001
Yarrows
Day led by Archaeologists 9 September - Pictures
See Also
Caithness Museums and Visitor Centres
Archaeology Links
Castletown Heritage Society
Links
Highland
Sites and Monuments Record |
13 September 09
Scotland's
Rural Past Team Comes To Scotland
 A
new group is to be formed to record some of the rural past in Caithness to
add to the Scottish record. There is a huge hole in the archaeological record of
Scotland’s past. Throughout recorded history until recent times most of
Scotland’s people lived in small dispersed farming communities known as
townships; a type of archaeological monument classed as Historic Rural
Settlement. The subject has largely been ignored by academic archaeology
until fairly recently. A very large number of these sites are currently
unrecognised and unrecorded. Most of the croft-houses and steadings still visible
in the landscape date to the 19th century. Many of these buildings were
recorded to a limited degree by the first Ordinance Survey of the 1870s.
However their remit was to record only those building that stood above
knee height. Unfortunately most farmsteads built before about 1800 were
constructed from turf on stone footings; too low to meet the Ordinance
Survey criterion of knee high or above. The Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic
Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) is doing what it can within its limited
resources to rectify this situation but it needs our help.
Read on if you would like to get
involved..........
Whitegate Broch, Keiss Excavation July 2006
 Whitegate
Broch is being excavated by a team under the leadership of Dr Andy Heald
of the National Museum of Scotland with students from Nottingham
university and local amateur archaeologists. The two brochs at Keiss
harbour are under investigation with the larger dig being concentrated on
the Whitegate broch. The project has the full support of the
Caithness Archaeological Trust.
Open Day At Whitegate
Broch - Saturday 22
July 2006
The team are inviting members of the public to an open day on Saturday
22 July between 1.00pm and 4.00pm to view the site and hear what they have
discovered to date. Free tours will take place
Already an interesting
feature which they hope to uncover in greater depth is the discovery of
corbelled well in the centre of the broch. Dr Heald hopes to have
some samples dated for comparison with the nearby Keiss Harbour Broch to
assess the possibility of some connection due to their close proximity. If
you would like to see round the excavations on Saturday 22 July head for
Keiss Harbour foreshore
Caithness Young Archaeologists
A new group for young folk between the ages of 8 and 16
Wag Of Forse
Added 29 September 05
The Stone
Circles Of Caithness Added 28 September 05
Sculptured Stones Of Caithness
The
Unseen Sites Around Loch Watenan - A Walk on 21 September 2001
Cairn OF Get 9 September 2001
Hill Fort Above Cairn Of Get
Grey Cairns of Camster Monuments and Water - a reinterpretation of
The Grey Cairns of Camster by Amelia Pannett
Concentric Earthworks
St Marys Chapel, Crosskirk (c.1100)
New St Mary's Chapel
section set up 13 August 2001
Dunnet
Bay Archaeology Notes
Check
out Caithness Field Club pages for Local Archaeology Articles
In June 2000 we have started to enter the very
interesting articles from the Field Club.
Several will give insights to some of the counties interesting features.
Prehistoric Caithness - A list of
some of the many monuments and other features in Caithness
Articles On Stone Rows In
Caithness & Sutherland
The
Multiple Stone Rows of Caithness & Sutherland 1
The
Multiple Stone Rows of Caithness & Sutherland 2
The Multiple Stine Rows of
Caithness & Sutherland 3 - Not Yet published on
Caithness.org
The
Multiple Stone Rows of Caithness & Sutherland 4 - Their
Purpose Stone Rows of Tormsdale
Caithness Field
Club Pages on Caithness.org has a variety of articles on
Ancient monuments, stones, hut circles etc.
Caithness
Field Club Bulletins - contain many articles on
Archaeological and Historical subjects |