Life and Death in Assynt's Past

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Historic Assynt is a community body dedicated to preserving and enhancing access to all aspects of Assynt’s Heritage – natural, historical and cultural.  The society’s most visible achievements to date have been the preservation of Ardvreck Castle and Calda House, along with restoration of the Inchnadamph Old Kirk and the MacLeod burial vault.  See  www.historicassynt.co.uk

Historic Assynt organises meetings, lectures, visits, and an ongoing programme of training and survey work, carried out initially by a team of volunteers under the auspices of the nation-wide Scotland’s Rural Past project, and followed up in 2009 – 2010 by the Hidden Lives project.

Hidden Lives, which was funded by HLF and Leader, set out to study all the archaeological remains within a few hundred metres of most of the main road networks through Assynt. Led by AOC Archaeology with a team of volunteers, hundreds of sites were surveyed. As new features were discovered, the significance of Assynt’s archaeology  became apparent: the cluster of Neolithic remains around Ledmore and Ledbeg, the concentration of Iron Age structures on the coast, the medieval heart of the parish at Inchnadamph and well preserved pre-clearance remains scattered widely throughout the parish.  See www.aocarchaology.com/assynt/index.html

Concerned about the stability of Clachtoll Broch, in 2007 Historic Assynt raised money to explore this imposing Iron-Age stronghold, resulting in a detailed structural report and a policy for investigation and stabilisation.

Historic Assynt’s long term aim is to help people to access and understand all the key periods of Assynt’s history through a network of thoroughly investigated and conserved sites.

For details of Historic Assynt’s latest  community archaeology project, please check out their Assynt Fire and Water website here.