drewbhoy

The first site in 2023 was far far easier than the last site of 2022.

At the village shop in Evanton take Chapel Road, then Hermitage Street which leads to Swordale Road. Park just before the Swordale Cottages, jump a gate and climb the hill until the first old dyke. There are rocks everywhere, as I now know many are covered in cup marks.

There are a lot of dry stane dykes in the area so there are no prizes for guessing where most of the stones came from for this .

What is left is the chamber, three stones surrounded in cairn rubble. Some kerbs remain in place in what is a beautifully placed site. Views over the Cromarty Firth complete with rainbows – wonderful.

Visited 03/01/2023.

The last stop of a day which had proved, for me at least, adventure free. That was about to change at Cnoc Nan Taibhsean – the aptly named in English – Hill of Ghosts.

I parked at a small place called Inch, north of the B9163 and walked west on what I thought would be an easy stroll.

Jumping a fence I crossed into a wilderness of head high gorse, fallen down trees, marsh and tried to batter a way through, one bit of luck was a digger in the field to the south east. Very handy for finding a way out.

Eventually you’ll find the ruins of an old croft, and in a rare clearing you’ll find the cairn covered in all types gorse, furze, whin – the famous jabby stuff.

What remains is a cairn that is 8m wide standing at 0.6m tall. Most what can be seen is covered in grass.

From this clearing it’s east back to Inch, however the short journey takes a long time. I resorted to crawling on the ground, jumping on branches etc trying to keep an eye on the top of the digger. Without the digger I would have been completely lost.

After many retreats and various directions the field was found. The legs and arms had taken a battering, but the Hill of Ghosts didn’t win.

Only go if the undergrowth has gone.

Visited 27/12/2022.

After Easter obviously is Wester, therefore jump a fence, go through a boggy bit, jump another fence and you’ll reach the dun at Wester Rarichie.

Unlike its near neighbour, there is hardly any vegetation to fight against so most of the remains are easily seen.

Bits of wall can be seen all round the top of the small till, partly erosion partly animal damage. At the bottom there seems to be a ditch and a small quarry.

Entrance to the dun is on the east, going up through the wall. The walls must have been large as the tumble scatters to at least 5m, the dun itself being 20m wide.

Good views all round.

A class site to visit especially with its neighbour to the east.

Visited 27/12/2022.

From Easter Rarichie farm it’s a reasonably easy walk to the nearby fort/dun situated on the north east side of the Hill of Nigg.

Multiple ramparts and ditches surround the slopes leading up to the top of the small hill. These are hard to spot because of long grass, turf and the more usual types of heavy vegetation. You get a better view of the defences by standing a fair distance from the fort especially to the north. After following the grass track, which swings past the southern defences, the remnants of a roundhouse are all that remain in the interior of the fort.

There is is a lot going here as the various excavations and notes explain in the Canmore link.

Tremendous views and immediately west another dun.

Visited 27/12/2022.