John, Trina, Beth and Linda’s Inland Assynt Diary, 18th-21st March 2010
The objects of the trip were two-fold, firstly to participate in the Assynt Hidden Lives Project, and secondly to extend the boundaries of the Ross-shire Rock Art Project slightly, into an area of Sutherland which in theory should have rock art but which to date none has been recorded. The trip was postponed from February due to the weather. The team stayed in a cottage at the Assynt Field Centre, Inchnadamph.
The aim was to visually check the central road corridor within the limits of the known Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments for likely outcrops and erratics, particularly the ‘gateways’ into the fertile parts of this area where numerous chambered and other probable funerary cairns are recorded, and to cover the most likely areas on foot based on a knowledge of where rock art occurs in Easter Ross, Kintail and Glenelg.
Thurs 18th March.
Arrived Inchnadamph late morning. Drove north and parked beside Loch na Gaimhich. Made a sweep of likely areas around this obvious northern gateway into the area. The sweep included large erratics on the S side of Cnoc Coir a Bhaic. No rock art found.
Parked
next beside the Achmore chambered cairn and swept the area above the
cairn N and S, and the small un-named valley which runs NNW from the
chambered cairn. No rock art found but several structures were
noted, including a hut circle, see attached drawing with field notes.
Met up with Robin who went with Beth to check some prominent rock
features on the near horizon W of the main road, - all declared
natural and unmarked.
Parked next near the Allt Druim nan Torr. Followed the burn upstream to see the possible burnt mounds and to check outcrops and erratics in the vicinity. Noted 4 sites, all similar, i.e. two adjoining mounds, not quite the classical horse-shoe burnt mounds with which we are familiar in Easter Ross. We suggest doing what the RCAHMS once told us they do with possible burnt mounds – take a shovel to them to make sure! They are an unusual group of features. In Easter Ross there are always hut circles and other BA features in the vicinity of burnt mounds. Could they be something else? Only a shovel will tell. It would be interesting to discover (if they are burnt mounds) what stones they were heating up in an area of limestone.
Friday 19th March
The target today was the eastern gateway to Assynt viz Glen Oykel. Parked at the entrance to Craggie Cottage. Swept the area down to Craggie Cottage and the fields below, (recently pit mounded for tree planting). Noted a large iron working site, possibly a bloomery. Also noted a hut circle at Craggie, previously marked on the ground with canes and tape.
Found a convenient suspension bridge over the Oykel and decided to reccy one of our target areas on the N side of the river (which we did not think we would be able to access), viz Coill nan Tosgaire . Recorded the positions of 6 known (as we discovered later) hut circles using GPS to enhance the existing record, see record sheet 3, added a small group of pits associated with the hut circles, discovered a group of 6 shieling huts at the E end of the wood, see record sheet 4, and a still bothy at the top N corner of the wood, see record sheet 5. This is all ‘schist country’ and we inspected hundreds of likely erratics for cup marks but none were found.
2.
On the way back we scrambled around the chambered cairn above the public road and near the telecoms mast below Cnoc Chaornaidh. The outcrop rock here is quartzite as are most of the orthostats and slabs that form the remains of the chambered cairn.
Our final stop was at the cattle grid marking the western FC boundary, Am Meallan on the 1:25,000 OS. The rock outcropping here and the rock forming the erratics was not recognised by us. There is a series of small enclosures here, some shown on the 1:25,000 OS, truncated by the main road, and in one enclosure a single shieling hut was found on a natural mound, see record sheet 6.
Saturday 20th March.
The target area today was Ledmore, beginning at Lyne. The first valley E of the farm house, extending N, was searched, being a series of enclosed and improved fields, then up onto the moorland and west back to the main road taking in the areas around both marked cairns. There are many large erratics in this area mostly appearing to be of a coarse sandstone, but no sign of any markings. Linda reported finding a rock shelter above the farmhouse water supply. Various historic period features were noted, but we assumed that they had been picked up in the main survey.
In the afternoon we parked at the end of the footpath to Lochinver near to the Cam Loch. We covered most of the Ledbeg middle ground as far north as Badair Chrag, finding 3 possibly unrecorded cairns and 2 shieling huts, all in the Cnoc Ruigh Thulaich area, see record sheets 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
Only
one earth banked enclosure is shown on the 1:25,000, S of Cnoc Ruigh
Thulaich, but there are several more on the ground possibly meriting
further survey. Many outcrops and eratics were checked but none are
marked. The geology here is variable.
Sunday 21st March
Our objective today was the ‘southern gateway’ to the fertile part of inland Assynt. We parked in the layby where the Allt an Fheur-locha passes under the main road, (also the end of a section of old road and one of the footpaths used to reach Cul Beag and Cul Mor). The aim was to cover the two obvious ridges W of the main road, running N-S, and the valley between them through which runs the Allt Liathdoire, and to search some of the large regeneration woodland block which adjoins the Achiltibuie public road to the S.
The area proved to be extremely poor – with a lack of fertility except for the narrow valley haughs. Druim Donn is Torridonian sandstone but this soon gives way (moving south) to an unyielding grey rock which were unsure of, but everywhere the scene is one of peaty acid conditions. Here and there in the hags is evidence of prehistoric Scots Pine. Hundreds of outcrops and erratics were checked for markings. The old gate into the woodland at 1635 0695 has been blocked up recently and an outer double wire electric fence, apparently enclosing the whole woodland, has been erected, with no information as to whether it is ‘live’. Our only option was to stand on it and it appeared not be live and it and the deer fence did not stop our progress on our intended route. Mains operated electric fences give a real belt, which none of us fancied somehow. Despite the deer fencing there is a healthy roe population in the woodland and they are doing plenty of damage.
3.
Inside the woodland the going is hard due to rank growth and tussocks, so we abandoned notions of splitting up to cover the Druima Raonaidh ridge plus the Liath Doire valley, and we all made up onto the ridge to pick up the ridge path shown on the 1:25,000 OS at its southern starting point 1675 0615, to work N. Logically the ridge path is almost certain to continue S to Old Drumrunie Lodge. It is our view that the Druima Raonaidh Ridge would have been the N –S route of choice over many millennia and that this historic route is worthy of re-instatement. It is braided in places and the most visible path on the ground does not always follow the route shown on the 1:25,000 OS. The visible path is further truncated at 1733 0681 by the double deer fence, where it would be a simple matter to put in a stile.
A small unrecorded ridge-way cairn of flat slabs was noted above Clar Loch Mor, see record sheet 12. At the outlet of Clar Loch Mor a disused dam with a sluice was recorded, see record sheet 13. The cairn shown on the 1:25,000 OS above Clar Loch Beag is a poor affair. It is presumably another ridge-way cairn similar to the above mentioned cairn, and it appears that flat slabs from the cairn have been used to pave the footpath as it passes the cairn. Numerous outcrops were checked along the ridge-way for possible markings, but none were found.
It remains impossible to say that there is no rock art in Assynt, but several of the most likely areas were covered in our 4 days to no avail. In Phase 2 of the Ross-shire Rock Art Project we shall prospect areas near Edderton, where there is very little rock art known, then west from Bonar Bridge following the Oykel upstream. Absence of rock art is as interesting as presence and only adds to the mystery. We feel sure that rock art had deep and important meaning to those who created it, but clearly its importance was not universal.
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