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Being an Ambassador for Archaeology Scotland

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#archaeology Scotland #Dingwall 800 celebrations #Dingwall Museum #Highland Heroes #Inverness Museum #Marcus the Medicus #Trimontium Museum Trust #Young Archaeologists Club

A NOSAS visit to Kilmartin, March 2026

by Anji Hancock In Saudi, Paul and I were regular explorers in the desert near where we lived. During our explorations we were blessed with finding numerous panels of rock art. One of the many panels of petroglyphs we found in the desert. Our desert trips will always be special times for us, and finding those panels of rock art always filled me with so much joy. Imagine my excitement when our…

#Achnabreac #Baluachriag #cup and ring marks #cup marked stones #Dunadd #Dunchraigaig deer #Glebe Cairn #Kilmartin archaeology #Kilmartin linear cemetery #Kilmartin Museum #Kilmichael Glassary #Nether Largie #NOSAS #Ormaig #rock art #Ru Cruin #Ru Cruin axehead carvings #Saudi Arabia petroglyphs #Temple Wood

Parallel Ditches: Another “Stalkerpath Phenomenon” mystery in mountain path research

by David Jarman A new NOSAS report on parallel ditches adds another little puzzle to the ‘stalkerpath’ saga1. Why should just a handful or two of hill path sections, or branches, not be properly cut in the conventional way but delineated simply by a pair of widely-spaced tramline slots? We have adopted the term ‘Parallel Ditches’ as the better ideas all seem to end up worse; but they are…

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#An Soutar #Gleann Meinich #Glencarron and Glenuaig Estate #Glenquoich #hill ponies #parallel ditches #Sgùrr a’ Phollain #stalkerpath phenomenon #stalkers paths #Strathconon #Strathfarrar #Struy

Digging the Crannog at Loch Achilty, September 2025

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Archaeological Fieldwork at Kinloss Abbey

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#Cistercian monastic landscape #David I #fieldwalking #Kinloss Abbey #Kinloss Abbey Trust #Lethen Estate #medieval glazed pottery #medieval gritty pottery #NOSAS #reformation #resistivity #Scheduled monument #Scottish Lidar #Walter Reid #William Anderson survey

Farming Strategies at Clachtoll Broch

by Gordon Sleight The broch in the wider landscape. The large-scale excavation of Clachtoll broch in north west Sutherland took place in 2017 and 2018 with intensive post-excavation analysis continuing for several years and culminating in the production of the full report in 2022 (Clachtoll: An Iron Age Broch Settlement in Assynt, North-West Scotland edited by Graeme Cavers and published by…

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#archaeobotanical #Assynt archaeology #broch #clachtoll #Darren Gröcke #Durham University #Iron Age farming #knocking stone #Mike Church #palaeoeconomy #quern stone #stable isotope analysis

A Late Change of Plan: Wildfires, Windfarms and the Dava Way

by John Wombell For Saturday 12th July, I had volunteered at short notice to help with the survey of underwater timbers at the Loch Achilty crannog and I was all ready for day on the ocean waves, then at the last minute on Saturday morning the task was called off. My hasty but long planned Plan B was a recce of the Dava Way (https://davaway.org.uk/) by Ebike starting at Forres. The Dava Way…

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#Bogeny Bridge #Dallas Dhu Distillery #Dava Way #Edinkillie Hall #Forres #Fylingdales Moor #hut circles #interpretation panels #Knock of Braemoray #Logie Windfarm #Lyme disease #NOSAS #Prehistoric field systems #rock art #ticks #wildfires

On site at the Cairns Broch Dig in Orkney

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#archaeological drawings #broch #Cairns excavation #context sheet #dumpy level #Dwarfie Stane #environmental sampling #field school #flot #flotation tank #graded sieves #hard hats #heat split cobble stone #Orkney #seal&039;s tooth #South Ronaldsay #UHI

A Bronze Age Midden at Cullerne Farm, Moray

By Michael Sharpe What people call serendipity sometimes is just having your eyes open. Jose Manuel Barroso Illus 1: Location map In July of 2020 I was walking around the edge of a field at Cullerne Farm, just south of Findhorn Village on the south Moray Firth coast, very close to where I have lived for many years, when I spotted some long grass and earth mounds out in the field that I hadn’t…

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#Coles and Taylor #Culbin sands #Cullerne #faunal assemblage #Findhorn village #George Black #Gordon Noble #hammer stone #post hole #radiocarbon dates #rig and furrow #roundhouse #saddle quern #semi-nomadism #truncated discoidal flakes

Easter Raitts, Baile Gean and NOSAS

by Marion Ruscoe Easter Raitts is a deserted township to the north of Lynchat, near Kingussie. It was selected as an appropriate site for excavation to fulfil two purposes – as a model to provide data for the reconstruction of a highland township at the Highland Folk Park in Newtonmore and to provide practical excavation experience for students of the Certificate in Field Archaeology, which was…

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Querns Galore! : The Ardroe Quern Quarry, Assynt

by Gordon Sleight ‘Have you had a look at that place over there with the round things?’ That intriguing question sent Historic Assynt’s Chair, Dave MacBain exploring on the south side of Loch Roe opposite Achmelvich, and the round things turned out to be a mixture of hollows of various sizes where millstones and querns had been excavated out of a low cliff on the shore of the Loch. In and…

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#Achmelvich #Ardroe quern quarry #clachtoll #Eric Grant #historic assynt #horizontal mill #Lewisian gneiss #Loch Roe #millstone #quern stone #snuff #snuff querns #spice querns

The Ord Estate Map of 1829 – A Missing Map Returns to the Highlands

by Roland Spencer-Jones This article describes the chance finding of an early 19th century map of Muir of Ord, the family who took it to Somerset, the repair of that map when it was returned to the Highlands, and the historical and cultural context in which the map was made. The Ord Estate map before conservation © Fraser-Mackenzie Family A Chance Finding As part of the NOSAS project in 2018…

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#Bunchrew House #Fraser-Mackenzie #George Campbell Smith #Glen Wyvis Distiller Goodwill fund #Highland Archive Centre #Lovat Estate #map repair and conservation #National Library of Scotland #North of Scotland Archaeological Society #Ord and Ardnagrask #Ord estate #Richard Aitken #Scanning historical maps #The Mackenzies of Ord

Tarradale Excavations 2024: Making sense of the wall

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The Location of King Bridei’s Fort: New Clues from Adomnán’s Life of Columba?

By Fiona Campbell-Howes In my talk for NOSAS in October, I spent some time discussing the episodes in Adomnán’s Life of St Columba (hereafter the Life) in which the holy man visits the Inverness area, which Adomnán locates in provincia Pictorum, in the province of the Picts. For this blog I want to take a closer look at those episodes. In particular, I want to see if they contain any…

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Bothan: Beehive Shieling Dwellings in Harris and Lewis

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 been intrigued by these structures. Some background on shieling…

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Chapelton Farm, near Inverness: A Fond Farewell

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…

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#Balloch Farm #Balnaglaich #Chapelton Farm #Culloden Estate #Culloden Papers #Duncan Forbes of Culloden #Ordnance Survey 1st edition #St. Mary’s Chapel

Mesolithic Encounters: Tarradale Shell Midden Excavation, Autumn 2023

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…

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#antler T axe #antler tine #Archaeological dig #Beauly Firth #boar canine #ecofacts #mesolithic archaeology #NOSAS #paleo-cliff #radiocarbon dates #raised beach #shell midden #shellfish gathering #Tarradale #wet sieving

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