LONG READ: Clyne Heritage Society guided walk at Strath Brora takes in archaeological remains stretching back 4,000 years
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The first of two Clyne Heritage Society (CHS) contributions to Highland Council’s Highland Archaeology Festival 2022 began on Sunday September 25, with a guided walk around the cleared township of Ledoch/Leadoch, Strath Brora, writes Dr Nick Lindsay, a local historian and CHS chairman, who led the walk.
A great turn-out of 28 participants assembled at Brora Heritage Centre and, after a short introduction to the day, then made their way through the Doll to the track leading to Carrol Farm.
Amongst the group were two primary school age children from Brora and several (slightly older) ‘regulars’, including CHS members and those of the North of Scotland Archaeology Society, from Inverness and Ross-shire. There were also seven who were newcomers to CHS events.
The first site visited was an early 20th century salmon hatchery ponds and sluice systems, created by Thomas Trussler, who was head-hunted in 1872 from an estate in Surrey by the Duke of Sutherland, as salmon hatcher/water bailiff at Loch Brora. The far cottage at Carrol was built for him.
Trussler set to work improving fish stocks, sending for salmon ova and fry from other estates around the country which had good salmon rivers. With his expert knowledge and under his supervision, the hatcheries brought on the salmon, before being released into the River Brora system, with the use of sluices to control the water.
The site of a Bronze Age hut circle (or roundhouse) was next visited. It is marked by a circular bank of turf and stone, spread to around 2m wide and standing up to around 1m high, with a c1m wide entrance in its south-east arc.
Entrances to these dwellings are almost always on this side, enabling the warming morning sunshine to penetrate the interior and also to avoid the prevailing south-westerly winds. Even in the Bronze Age, the people were perceptive, intelligent and practical.
These hut circle dwellers would have used the freely available timber to construct their dwellings, which had low circular walls of stone and turf, on top of which was a conical, thatched roof, supported by a number of internal vertical posts.
These would have been cosy, warm places in which to stay, well insulated from the wind and rain. However, the interior must also have been quite an acrid place, with smoke from the constantly burning central hearth (for cooking and warmth) just rising up to the rafters and escaping gently through the thick, water-proof thatch.
Hut circles were usually set on prominent free-draining knolls, or shelves on a slope, and are a very common feature throughout unspoilt areas in Highland straths. They range in size of internal diameter from around 5m to as much as 17m, but generally are around 10m.
Sometimes there is just one hut circle standing alone, but usually they are clustered into groups of three or four, or even maybe more. It is not clear whether they were all contemporaneous, or maybe some replaced others when they were falling into disrepair or had accidentally burnt down with fire sparks setting light to the tinder dry thatch – an every day hazard for Bronze Age dwellers!
Other Bronze Age sites visited by the group included clearance cairns, the piles of stones removed by the early farmers from their fields in preparation for cultivation, and a Burnt Mound, which is a large semi-circular mound of stones, situated next to a small burn. These features are conjectural, in that their purpose is not fully understood, the classic explanation being that they are sites of stone-lined tanks, filled with water, in which pebbles removed straight from a fire, were placed to make the water boil. This was possibly done to cook food or even to be used as a sauna. After much discussion at the site and in academia, the jury is still out
Lunch was spent in sunshine on the Iron Age Leadoch broch, now reduced to a huge mound of stones, set on a prominent knoll overlooking the beautiful Loch Brora. This once mighty tower formerly stood around 20m tall, with 4m thick stone walls and would have held an imposing presence overlooking the loch.
The afternoon was spent wandering around the Pre-clearance ruins of the Leadoch township buildings and enclosures and its extensive rig and furrow cultivation fields, where simple crops of bere (a type of hardy barley), oats, potatoes and turnips were grown.
Five dwelling houses, ranging from 25m x 3m to 6m x 3m, with 0.6m wide stone walls standing to less than 1m high, were observed, as well as the ubiquitous township grain-drying kiln. Earlier, in the morning, the ruins of three other Pre-clearance dwelling houses in a less formal scatter on the high, barren hillside above Leadoch were visited. It is speculated that these were houses built by people cleared at an earlier date from higher up the strath.
The final two sites were situated on top of glacial moraine ridges, one within and one outwith the township. The former was pitted with four 1-2m diameter and 0.5-1m deep ‘tattie clamps’, in which the township dwellers stored their potatoes after ‘howking’ in October.
The precious ‘tatties’ would have been placed on a bed of straw/heather/bracken lining the base of the pit and topped with turf. When food was required over the winter months, someone would be sent to the natural ‘larder’, where some of the crop was recovered and the supply was re-turfed for future use. Some crofters on the walk recalled the same technique being used by their previous generations.
The second ridge contained the remains of two partially boulder-filled pits, which probably represent cist burial sites of important people, dating to the Bronze/Iron Age. They both appear to have been excavated, probably by the antiquarian Minister of Golspie, the Rev James Joass, who had a part-time remit to identify and excavate archaeological features, finds from which were deposited with Dunrobin castle, many of which are on display in the museum in the castle gardens.
So, having walked through a landscape revealing c4,000 years of archaeological remains, at a stunning setting overlooking Loch Brora, the participants went away to their centrally-heated homes to dwell on times gone by, but probably thankful that they live in the 21st century, with their home comforts, nearby supermarkets and the internet always available, well, almost!
The society’s second contribution to the festival will be held at 7pm on Thursday, October 13 in Brora Community Centre, when Dr Lindsay will be presenting an illustrated talk on the findings of the society’s archaeological excavation of a longhouse at Greeanan, in Strath Brora, earlier this year in June.
Forty-two volunteer diggers spent 142-person days on site, the majority of whom had never taken part in a dig before. Some of the most amazing finds, including a beautiful carved bone spoon, tiny items of jewellery, fine pottery and a slate stylus, were made by these first-timers!
From the historical records, amongst the dwelling’s inhabitants was the Rev Walter Ross, Minister of the parish of Clyne from 1776 to his death in 1825. It was his one and only appointment.
There are various stories, mostly unfavourable, about him, one of which being that he was more interested in animal husbandry and agrarian practices than preaching. He took a tack at Greeanan, and spent summer months there, preaching to the local population and ignoring his flock nearer Brora! He knew, and helped, Donald Sage, of Kildonan, and is mentioned more than once in his Memorabilia Domestica book, notoriously for his assistance in hiding smuggled spirits in his church!
Later inhabitants were newlyweds 79-year-old John Mathieson and 27-year-old Isabella Baillie!
Contact info@clyneheritage.com for further details.
