About Strathnaver
The valley of Strathnaver ('strath' means 'valley') is named after the River Naver, which flows along and created it. It is an open, fertile valley with stepped shoulders leading up onto moorland and hills.
Strathnaver is full of archaeological sites from many periods. There are large Neolithic chambered tombs and Bronze Age standing stones, Iron Age brochs (substantial stone-built towers) and round houses, early Medieval chapel sites and carved stones, and also the remains of more than 40 townships (or joint tenant farms) whose inhabitants were evicted in the early 1800s to make way for sheep.
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The chapel site at Rivigill | |
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The River Naver | |
Cross slab at Klibreck |
The place name evidence from Strathnaver suggests that some of its settlements were continually occupied from the period of Norse linguistic influence, before A.D. 1200, til the early nineteenth century. Thirty-six settlement names that are Norse in origin are known in the strath. Thirteen of the Norse names, or 36%, appear in charters throughout the Medieval period, and 23 of them, or 63%, are shown as settlements on the late 16th- to early 19th-century maps. This suggests that they had long histories of use, though their precise locations might have shifted over time. Several of these township sites – including Klibreck, Grumbeg, Rivigill, Skail and Farr – have early Christian chapel sites or cross-incised stones, which hints that they were already settled before any Norse speakers arrived.