Anyone who has ever visited Orkney will know exactly what I mean. The wealth of archaeology to be found there, some of it now designated as a World Heritage Site, draws thousands of visitors every year, which is greatly to the benefit of the local economy.

At this point, anyone who knows Orkney will probably want to point out to me that Orkney is intrinsically fertile, seems almost always to have been prosperous and does have some wonderful sites. All that is perfectly true, but many of the best-known Orcadian monuments were not always obvious. The famous Stone Age village of Skara Brae was first revealed when storm waves washed away part of a sandy hill, and the very large and imposing Broch of Gurness, with its substantial village and surrounding ramparts, was known only as a stony hill until the artist (and poet, journalist, crofter and conchologist) Robert Rendall set up his easel there one day.

There are, in fact, many islands of fertility within the wild sweeps of Sutherland and the remains of some monument or other will be found in most if not all of them. That is certainly true of Assynt, where a limestone corridor runs down the eastern side of the parish. This is where the earliest signs of human activity are to be found.

The famous Bone Caves near Inchnadamph remain somewhat enigmatic. There is no doubt at all that they were used by humans who had been engaged in hunting birds and animals. What is not clear at this stage is when this happened. We do know that someone was buried here in the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, at a time when the more normal place of burial would have been within the many stone tombs that survive between Altnacealgach and Inchnadamph.

The succeeding Bronze Age saw a prolonged downturn in the climate, and the population may have reduced significantly, but there are some large round-houses which may belong to this period. From the Iron Age, there are some significant monuments on the coast, and the most obvious of these is the Broch of Clachtoll, still imposing despite the mass of loose stone which must have fallen from higher levels.

It is an important monument, with more than the broch tower to be seen. The doorway to the tower itself has a remarkable triangular lintel, but the whole entrance is guarded by a small outer work which looks rather like structures seen at Gurness and Midhowe in Orkney. There is at least one major outer wall, with a visible entrance, and there appear to be traces of some houses between the tower itself and this outer rampart.

According to Dr Euan Mackie, perhaps the greatest authority on brochs, this all makes it probably the most important broch on the west coast or even further, perhaps between Orkney and Skye.

After the Iron Age, we enter a period where evidence is often rather more scanty, not to say sometimes elusive and tantalising. There is no space here to discuss our questions about the Picts, Vikings or early Christians in Assynt, but there is quite a lot of exploration to do. Later on, of course, the picture changes.

We have Ardvreck Castle, Calda House, mills, farms, sheilings, cairidhs, nousts, townships, fanks and so on, but only a few of these are consolidated, mapped or explained to passers-by.

That is what we want to begin to do in, and for, Assynt. We want to highlight this heritage of archaeological monuments, interpret some of it, and perhaps make access easier where this is feasible and needed. And as part of this pan-Assynt project, we want to undertake much-needed work on Clachtoll Broch. It needs consolidation in order to stop more of the structure falling about, and perhaps injuring people or animals in the process. It needs at least some of the fallen stone to be removed and replaced where it was, if this is possible - any old photographs would be a real help with this - so that the intact structures underneath may be seen and appreciated.

We would like some excavation to take place, perhaps within the courtyard of the tower, along the route from the outer entrance to the broch doorway, and inside one of the probable houses. It would be wonderful if we could get a university department involved with this, perhaps working on this extensive site over a few seasons.

Again, I know from Orkney that this can be of real benefit to the local economy, and certainly is a huge attraction to visitors. Watching folk on their knees, painstakingly revealing how previous generations lived, seems to be quite addictive!

This project was recently launched under the auspices of Historic Assynt and Comunn Eachdraidh Asainte, with an evening talk on brochs given by Euan Mackie to a packed Stoer Hall and a walk led by him on a mercifully sunny morning. Even then, An Dun, Clachtoll, was looking imposing. With luck, and a lot of hard work, it will in time look magnificent, and we will know a lot more about it.

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