Life and Death in Assynt's Past

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The Tardis was waiting for us in the car park at Lochinver, but unfortunately Dr Who didn’t come to drive it, so the crowd instead decanted into several sub-tardises and set off anyway.

First stop Loch Assynt-side, to look at the island which was alledgedly inhabited once upon a time. You wouldn’t want to come ashore in a hurry on a windy day like this with waves considerably higher than your average coracle.

Onwards to Ardvreck castle and Calder House, and then we put the time machine firmly into action and sped back to the bronze age, looking up at the waterfall and the spring-filled glen above it, where there are several intriguing burned mounds. We have plans to excavate a burned mound later in the year – one of these or one of the others dotted around Assynt is yet to be decided. We had the inevitable round of options of what they were used for – saunas, feasting pits or, my personal guess/dead certainty: womb-room for ceremonies such as birthing. Perhaps by excavating one we will find out something that might point us towards more informed speculation.

Next stop Borralan, cranking the time machine back all the way to the neolithic. We squodged and slithered up the hill to look at the excavated chambered cairn and talked about what the dig had revealed, most of which has unfortunately been re-covered with turf, as instructed by Historic Scotland. We all wiped the rain from our spectacles, and tried not to shiver too much as we imagined what life might have been like for the people who used these sites, back when Assynt was warmer and dryer, with soil rather than a metre of peat.

Back to Inchnadamph, to the Field Centre and, thankfully, a warm drying room. Sandwiches and strategising about what Historic Assynt might work on next: digs of sites (burned mounds, crannogs?) that may give us evidence from periods we don’t yet know much about, such as the bronze age and the mediaeval; more consolidation and excavation of Clachtoll Broch (what’s under the rubble?), a survey of round houses using the same methodology as is being used in Wester Ross; perhaps investigation of more recent buildings that can be augmented with historical information. We agreed that much more can be done to bring the information we do have to more creative use, creating trails and tales that can bring the past inhabitants of Assynt to life.

Onwards then to the north side of the parish. We stopped to overlook the broch at Ardvar and talked about the way the focus of habitation shifted dramatically from the early period, where the sites are all centred around Ledmore, Ledbeg, Borralan and Elphin in the heights of Assynt, to the Iron Age when the big buildings were all around the coast. Why? We imagined the people of two thousand years ago, clearly competent sea people, part of a maritime culture and connected to communities in the Western Isles and elsewhere on the coast, using the sea for food, transportation and trade.

Getting back into our tardises we cranked forwards to the early nineteenth century, specifically 1812, when the house at Glenleraig was cleared. Speculation was rife about why the fine pottery found in the house was there in the first place and why it was left behind when the people were cleared.

The final stop was Stoer green, looking out to Clachtoll broch, with the burned mound in the foreground.

We returned to Clachtoll on Sunday, in better weather, and walked out to the broch. It is intriguing to consider that it collapsed more than two thousand years ago and could well have been standing for a few hundred years before that. When Pytheas of Marsalis passed these shores, in 330 BC, he may well have it seen it: a giant walnut whip, as Andy Heald describes it, more than 10 metres tall. And under the rubble, nothing has been touched since the collapse. It is tantalising to imagine what evidence of Iron Age life is in there. Everyone present agreed that it would be hugely exciting to excavate it, to find out what is in there.

First steps are to stop the south wall being undermined and protect the ends of the walls. But after that, hopefully we can get permission to dig a little deeper into the mysteries under the rubble.

All the tardises have, for the time being, returned to the 21^st century. But we are planning future delights. Watch this space for details of our Music Through the Ages Day, as part of the Assynt Festival (see www.assyntfestival.org.uk). We’ll be time-travelling in sound, beginning with music from the neolithic in the morning, getting to Norse Lyre music by lunch time, the Gaelic song tradition in the afternoon, with the Grouse Beaters bringing our traditional tunes into the 21^st century by the end of the night. Not to be missed. Put Saturday 6 October 2012 in your diary now!

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As the day of digging the Badger Stone (also known as ‘The Ledbeg Lady’) approached, the weather got steadily worse. Whatever watches over the weather in these parts seems particularly averse to archaeological activity. True to form, on the day of the dig itself it rained and blew a gale but it would take a wetter, windier day than this to put off the intrepid explorers of Life and Death in Assynt’s past.

The dig was led by John Wombell, who started the day saying that it was 50-50 whether the big stone was formerly standing or not. At over 3 metres in length, 60cm in girth, it would be an impressive sight upright, especially located where it is, below the two neolithic chambered cairns, which are on two mounds and mimic the paps of Cul Mor to the south west. The site is in clear view of Loch Borralan, and clearly central to a key area of the neolithic landscape.

So we dug a 2 metre square, down to the clay, to see what we could find. The key question was whether there was any sign of a socket, in which the stone would have stood, if it stood.

We dug, splattering mud, desperately trying to channel water away from the deepening hole, eventually settling for a channel through one side of the hole into a drainage ditch. Occasionally John would murmur about changes in the texture of the soil, then decide it was a natural lens of different geology. We dug on.

By lunchtime the only sockets to be seen were tired shoulder and hip ones. Over sandwiches, John decided we should try at the other end of the stone, on the basis that it is not unheard of for standing stones to be narrower at the base than at the top. Given that this stone bears a remarkable resemblance to a human figure, with head, shoulders, even breasts, if you allow your imagination a bit of leeway, my mind boggled with the possibility that the Ledbeg Lady was standing on her head. A yogic stone!

The Ledbeg Lady aka The Badger Stone

By tea time this idea was crushed by no sign of a socket at the head end either, but the more soil we cleared from around her, the more ladylike she has become. But what was she doing, if she wasn’t standing?

John Wombell says it’s ‘very odd’. It seems clear that it was put there by people. It’s completely unlike any erratic boulders left by retreating glaciers, with no signs of ice weathering and if it were dropped by a glacier it would be embedded in the morrain. Instead it rests on a layer of soil.  It also appears to have some signs of working or shaping.

There are a couple of fractures in the stone. Was it destined to be raised, but dropped? Did auguries or portents put people off the idea of lifting it? Was it perhaps always intended to be recumbent – a sleeping goddess? Was it used ceremonially?

Some people brought it down from the slopes above, and left it. Who they were and why they put it there remains a mystery. All the more room for imagination!

Tomorrow we head off in Kenny John’s Tardis to discover more mysteries from the depths of Assynt’s past. The Tardis is not yet full (it’s a Tardis, after all!) Contact Gordon Sleight (01571 85207 or [email protected]) if you’d like to join us.