Farmer Jonathan Hampton immediately alerted Historic Scotland and also decided to notify police. But he claims officers completely botched up the find – which has since been professionally excavated – and is so angry that he has now decided to speak out.

He says that when they were left alone at the site, the officers, who have not been named, scooped up a number of the bones into a plastic bag, leaving part of the remains behind.

And Mr Hampton alleges some important woven material he and others spotted in the grave has now gone missing. "I just couldn't believe it when I discovered what they had done. I was in the depths of despair," he said.

"I have told this story to a lot of local people and every time their mouths have dropped open. People are very angry that Scottish heritage has just been written off like this."

Police this week declined to respond to Mr Hampton's allegations but issued the following comment: "Northern Constabulary has a clear procedure in relation to complaints. If a member of the public feels they have not received the correct level of service they can contact force headquarters or alternatively visit the Northern Constabulary website for guidance."

Mr Hampton had been carrying out some work in the field, known as West Park, on the afternoon of the 26th, along with local contract digger driver John White. The digger hit a large stone which Mr White gently pulled back with the machine.

The two men then found themselves staring into a stone-walled chamber measuring around 1.5 metres by 60cm and around 76.2cm in depth.Inside was a skeleton in a foetal position, known as a "crouched burial".

History buff Mr Hampton, who has a 2000-year-old vitrified fort on his ground which was excavated in 1972, and who in the past has taken part in the excavation of a Roman villa, knew immediately the significance of the discovery. He said: "If I could have done a cartwheel at my age I would have done it. As it was, I punched the air and jumped up and down. It was very exciting to be the first to see it.

"We could see quite clearly that it was a body. There was the shape of the head, eye sockets and lower jaw. Lower down in the thigh area there was this material that looked woven.

I called it basket material. It could have been cloth. It also looked to me as though that material possibly went round the head as well.

"I realised it was an important find so no one touched anything at all. We all left it exactly as it was." Mr Hampton tried to contact Historic Scotland, but when he got through he was initially mistakenly told to call another number which turned out to be Scottish Natural Heritage.

He then phoned Tain police station and reported the discovery before eventually making contact with Dr Fraser Hunter, a curator with the National Museums of Scotland.

"I described it to him and he started jumping up and down with excitement," Mr Hampton said. "He said it sounded like Early Bronze age and possibly 4000 years old.

"He said this was the type of find that archaeologists dream about – a complete cist with such a good amount of material still there. Normally the acidity in the soil eats everything away."

"Dr Hunter said the chap to talk to was Rod McCullagh of Historic Scotland but when I rang him, he wasn't at his desk."

A police officer, who was later joined by a detective, arrived at Langwell at 5pm and insisted on seeing the grave – despite the fact that by this time it had been covered by a tarpaulin.

Said Mr Hampton "They hummed and hawed and made telephone calls and it all went on for some little time. It was getting dark and I was cold and tired. I eventually asked: 'What are you going to do?' and they told me they were going to take a couple of photographs. I said that was fine, take them and cover the site up."

When Mr Hampton saw the headlights of the police car leaving the field, he went down and stopped the vehicle – and was aghast to learn that the officers had interfered with the grave. He said: "The officers told me they had removed some of the contents on the instruction of the procurator fiscal. I really let rip at them and also let rip at the procurator fiscal.

"I went home and rang Rod McCullagh and told him what had happened. At that point I was so angry I rang Inverness police and Tain police and told them all exactly what I though of them.

"If I had destroyed something I bet Historic Scotland would have shouted at me, but because it was the police it's a different matter. What was the point of digging it out? If it had been a crime scene, that was the last thing you would do. It was not a crime scene, so why do it?"

"Whilst I was ringing police I asked my wife to go down and see if they had left the grave in an okay state. She returned and said it had not been properly covered but not all the contents had gone – she could still see some bones there. Some of the woven material had gone and all the top layer. The officers had also left the gate to the field open."

Mr Hampton would now like to know what happened to the woven material which Historic Scotland told him the police had denied taking. He believes the bones taken away by the officers were sent to a forensics lab in Dundee then taken back to Dornoch. They were later retrieved by the archaeologist on the second attempt. He says he does not have any particular plans for the cist other than to re-cover it.

Meanwhile Historic Scotland called in Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) to excavate the grave. Dr Olivia Lelong arrived at Langwell on 6th February and worked on the site until 12th February.

She told the Northern Times earlier this week that it was an exciting find. "Bronze Age burial cists are not extremely unusual finds, but they're not common either and it's very exciting to discover another. What makes this one outstanding and pretty much unique is all the organic material preserved with the bones," she said.

"This burial cist contained a skeleton in the crouched position. The bones were fairly intact but were covered with a white powder which we are trying to identify. It could be a product from the bone itself or it could be material that had been put over the body.

"There was really quite remarkable preservation of organic material in the cist. There was a basket-like material round the head and also the lower thighs and it is really rare to find that sort of thing. We also recovered fragments of wood."

Dr Lelong said the bones would be radiocarbon dated in a bid to establish their exact age, but she estimated they went back to at least 2000 BC. Tests are also to be carried out in the hope of determining the gender and height of the person. Dr Lelong said there could be other cists in the same area. "When you find one you quite often find another or more.

"We were hoping to assess the likelihood of that when we were up but the ground was covered with snow and frozen at the time. However, we might return at some point in the future."

Dr McCullagh of Historic Scotland told the NT that Mr Hampton had followed correct procedure in contacting police in the first instance. However, he added that the pictures of the grave taken by digger driver Mr White differed markedly to those later taken by archaeologists.

"I have seen the photographs taken by Mr Hampton's digger driver and they show a really very interesting set of remains – ones that are still puzzling us," he said. "By the time my team had got there from GUARD, their first photographs were not the same as the ones taken by the digger driver."

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