2007 Fieldwork Season
Fieldwork in 2007 consisted mainly of survey, with limited excavation at Ceannabeinne township near Durness. The 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons of excavation at Borralie and survey and excavation at Klibreck proved that buildings of late Medieval date do survive in at least two townships in Strathnaver Province. Armed with better knowledge of what Medieval remains might look like in the field, we decided to carry out surveys of several townships and some possibly Medieval features, both in Strathnaver and near Durness.
In Strathnaver, we carried out rapid walkover surveys at the townships of Langdale, Grumbeg and Achadh an Eas (pronounced Achness), all in the upper part of the valley. We recorded the visible building footings through sketches, photographs and written descriptions, with the aim of building up a basic picture of their character and identifying possibly earlier features among the later remains. Achadh an Eas and Grumbeg are under heavy bracken cover and were difficult to assess, but they still have the potential to clarify their development through more detailed survey.
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The chapel of Cladh Langdale. |
What may be the earliest settlement cluster in Langdale township. The Tulloch lies behind trees to the left of the farmhouse. |
Langdale seemed to exhibit the most complexity and the best potential for further investigation. One of its largest clusters contains the ephemeral remains of buildings that may have fallen out of use during the township's occupation, rather than after its eviction. This cluster also lies closest to the pre-Reformation chapel of Cladh Langdale, and to a banked and moated enclosure called the Tulloch. We made a detailed topographic survey of this earthwork, which could reflect Langdale's importance during the Medieval period. Mounds knowns as 'tullochs' are recorded from Medieval Ireland; they served as local gathering places where justice was administered. Barbara Crawford believes the place name Langdale, paired in Strathnaver with Rosal, indicates an important inland routeway (with the 'long valley' plus 'horse field' names pointing to vital pasturing for the horses used in transit). Those travelling to Lairg and the east coast via Strathnaver would have had to pass through Langdale, and the proximity of the Tulloch and the chapel suggests this was a seat of some civil and ecclesiastical authority who controlled that movement during the late Norse and Medieval periods.
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Ceannabeinne township. |
The two superimposed central hearths in a Ceannabeinne longhouse. |
We also turned our attention to the township of Ceannabeinne, to the east of Durness. It saw one of the last Clearances in the Highlands, in 1841, and the occupants' response in the Durness Riots helped set in motion processes that would eventually bring an end to such evictions and improve the rights of crofters. The township is first mentioned in documentary sources in the 1600s, but it may have originated earlier. Our work there produced a detailed map of the various longhouses, barns, enclosures and cultivation remains, and we opened trial trenches in four of the buildings. Two were byres, with a paved floor in one and a rubble drain in the other. The third was a dwelling, with two successive, superimposed stone hearths in the centre of the floor. The fourth was built very late, perhaps just before the evictions; it had a gable-end fireplace, with plaster still adhering to the wall faces!
We also examined what may be a much earlier feature, on a sea-girt promontory known as Traigh na H'Uamhag. It is joined to the mainland by a narrow land bridge, and it holds the remains of at least two buildings, with sections of walling built across the neck of land. Its isolated position hints it is something out of the ordinary from normal Medieval or post-Medieval settlement. It could be the site of an early monastic hermitage. The larger building had a substantial wall and a roughly cobbled floor, with numerous fire-cracked stones and a scatter of charcoal. The smaller one, which was tucked between rock outcrops, had a beautifully paved floor and a well-constructed wall of upright boulders and slab-built masonry. Could this have been a chapel? We await a radiocarbon date from charcoal from the larger building.
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Survey underway of the promontory of Traigh na H’Uamhag. |
The little building with its paved floor and well-built wall. |