Showing 1-50 of 1,889 posts. Most recent first | Next 50            
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Visited: August 16, 2022
Almost a year on, on a superb sunny morning, I renewed my quest to visit Acairseid an Rubha, which is Gaelic for 'The anchorage of the peninsula'. On the OS map this looks a mere stroll, but in practice attainment of the goal is a pretty hard slog and not a task for the unprepared. The approach starts with an approximately two mile walk in along a good estate road from the car park at Point of Sleat. As you approach the coast the path crosses a stream, and shortly after two tracks head left towards Point of Sleat. Ignore these and continue a little farther till the track passes a cottage before arriving at the beautiful Point of Sleat Harbour. Here a notice warns of a difficult rocky coastline ahead.
It looks quite daunting and certainly requires a strong pair of boots and, I suggest, not a little experience of navigating rocky Skye terrain. If you are unsure, do as I did on first approach and ascend the hillside to make a route around this section. I did, however, return by the coastline, and found that by making use of a number of grassy oases within the coastal rocks, it proved less daunting than it had appeared from the other end.
Canmore has little to say about this site other than that it is a 'possible dun' and referring you to the website of Historic Environment Record for The Highland Council area, which explains that the site was recorded as recently as 2011 as a possible Iron Age dun from around 550-560 CE, but noting that 'Nothing remains of the structure, but a large amount of fallen stone forms a scree on the east facing slope. The basal stones of an inclined possible access path remain, in one place attaining a height of 3-4 courses of stone. '
After negotiating the coastline, Acairseid an Rubha sits at the extremity of the bay, connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of dry land. From here it is no problem to ascend the ridge that appears to lead to the dun: but it doesn't, and I had to return to near sea level and negotiate more awkward coastal rocks to make my way round to a small beach almost immediately below the headland. From here it was still a steep climb to the summit, where two modern stone cairns, clearly visible from across the bay, stand.
The summit of Acairseid an Rubha is grassy and really quite small, and shows no obvious signs of antiquity. On the slope below, the scree on the east side was certainly in evidence, and above it a section of rock that just 'might' have been part of ancient walling. Below the scree was a section that seemed to have a degree of structure, perhaps part of an entranceway.
The Acairseid an Rubha headland is undoubtedly a superb lookout point and provides stunning views seaward and towards the Cuillin. But in view of the difficulty of access—I've never had to work so hard to visit any broch or dun previously—would our forbears have actually constructed a small stronghold there? Maybe round the far side there is an easier point of access from the sea, by boat, that makes it a realistic possibility.
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Outrage after north-east stone circle damaged by fire
Visitors to Aikey Brae Stone Circle, near Old Deer, discovered the remains of a fire on the grounds this week.
Pictures from the area show burned logs and a large fire mark in the centre of the circle.
P&J Link Report.
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Visited: June 13, 2022
A short distance from the Achness Hotel in the community of Rosehall, and a mere 90 metres southeast of the ruined Achness Broch, stands another dilapidated broch: Achaneas.
In this case there is a distinct mound two to three metres in height bearing a number of mature trees, but again, little evidence of walling structure or an entrance passage. There are, however, a number of large stones on the eastern and southern slopes of the mound.
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Visited: June 13, 2022
As a spectacle, the remains of Achness Broch are barely worth the visit, and it was only because they sit just over one hundred metres from the magnificent Casselly Falls (Achness Falls on the OS map) that I was in this area. You pass the broch on the path to the falls.
Nowadays, Achness Broch is just a low, grass-covered mound, with less than a handful of stones peeking through the undergrowth. A mere 65 metres from the broch stands the walled Achness Graveyard, and it seems probable, in the absence of any other stone structures in the vicinity, that the stones of the broch were plundered in its construction.
From some viewpoints it is just possible to discern a rather shallow saucer-shaped depression in the surface of the mound, as reported by Canmore, typical evidence of the central court of many brochs.
Just 90 metres to the southeast of this broch stand the remains of another ruined monument: Achaneas Broch.
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Visited: June 13, 2022
Ferry Wood Broch (remains of) lie in woodland immediately west of Little Loch Shin in Lairg. Access is from the Countryside Centre, where ample parking is available. If you drive past the football pitch, you can park up close to the gate that gives access to the woodland.
The path into the woods soon splits but as it is circular you can follow either branch and, after a walk of just under a kilometre, at its northernmost point, you will encounter a marker stone carrying generalised information on the brochs of Scotland. The remains of Ferry Wood Broch lie on a shallow rise just a few metres north.
In truth, there is not a lot to see as the structure has been long since trashed by forestry work, but the overall outline is clear, marked by numerons sizeable boulders all around it, though apart from one short, tumbled stretch, few are adjacent to each other. No signs of inner or outer wall facings are apparent, nor any hint of any mural structure.
At the time of my visit there was a low semicircular structure that resembled a wind break, but as all its smallish stones were clean and free of vegetation, it is almost certainly a recently constructed 'folly'.
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Caithness Brochs Project have recently updated their website with details and images relating to their intent to build a 'modern' broch.
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Farmer fined for digging up ancient 'burial cairn'
A farmer has been fined £18,000 for destroying a Neolithic site on Skye.
Duncan MacInnes used the earth from Upper Tote Cairn to help with a shed-building project elsewhere on his land.
Full report can be read here.
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September 12,2021
Rather embarrassingly, on returning from a trip to the Isle of Skye, I discovered on checking the GPS data in my photographs, that I had not in fact visited Acairseid an Rubha promontory fort. I had in fact visited a headland on the opposite (north) side of the bay! Fortunately, I found that two of the coastal scenes I had photographed did in fact include Acairseid an Rubha and they are presented above.
Acairseid an Rubha is accessed from the car-park at the end of the A851 from Broadford, where a wide metalled track heads to Point of Sleat. After two kilometres, at the point where the signed path heads sharp left southwards towards Point of Sleat, the track continues towards the west coast. It is now under a kilometre to the fort.
As for the fort, I hope to visit it next time I'm on Skye. Very little seems to be known about it, and even Canmore has nothing significant to state other than that it is a "possible dun".
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Visited: June 23, 2021
Tulach Beag is a dilapidated broch which can be visited as part of an excursion to the much more impressive Tulach Mor. As the remains of this broch have a fairly low profile, it is recommended to follow the route to the nearby Tulach Mor, then walk about 460 metres northwards along the bank of the River Thurso. As you approach, Tulach Beag becomes evident, just 40 metres inland from the river. No trace of walling, outer or inner, remains here.
Route Map
The map of Causeymire Windfarm on the Tulach Mor page actually shows the location of this broch.
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Visited: June 23, 2021
Tulach Mor is the southernmost of the Westerdale brochs in Caithness, and stands adjacent to the River Thurso in the Causeymire Windfarm near Achkeepster. Unusually, perhaps, walkers are actively welcomed to explore the area of this windfarm. Access is via a good metalled road to the windfarm, to the west of the A9 and about 1½ kilometres south of Mybster.
Be aware that the much more expansive Halsary Windfarm lies immediately adjacent to and south of the Causeymire Windfarm (but is not at present shown on the OS map). Its spacious entrance is just a few hundred metres farther south. On my first visit to the area, I parked in the entrance to this windfarm and found the layout totally different to the windfarm shown on the OS map. If in doubt, look for the Map illustrated in the Artistic / Interpretive: section above. If you don't see a sign bearing this map beside the cattle grid at the start of the road leading into the windfarm, you are in the wrong windfarm!
Route to Tulach Mor
The purple marker "P" indicates the parking area at the windfarm entrance (you are not permitted to drive your vehicle into the windfarm). The green markers show the locations of the Tulach Mor and Tulach Beag brochs. The southern one is your target, Tulach Mor.
The walk to Tulach Mor starts with a trek of around four kilometres along a wide roughly metalled road. Keep to this road (yellow trail on the map) and avoid turning off along any of the short turbine servicing roads. All the turbines are indicated by small white markers on the map, and the one where you set off cross-country to Tulach Mor is a larger white marker indicated "X".
When you leave the road, you have a walk over a mixture of grass tussocks, heather and sphagnum (cyan line on map) for almost 600 metres, effectively due west. The main indicator to look out for is the River Thurso. Turbine "X", is the first turbine from which you can actually see the river, so basically just make for it. The terrain is mixed, and the easiest stretches are the frequent grassy tongues. I visited in drought conditions, but I reckon the superabundant sphagnum could be a problem in wetter times. Almost at once, you should see the broch mound in the distance.
Tulach Mor is a prominent mound abutting the eastern river bank close to where the River Thurso dog-legs sharply towards the southwest. The broch stands on a rock with a steep face on the south and west and was originally protected by a ditch around its eastern side. On the east is a field of tumbled masonry, presumably the remains of a severely quarried wall that formerly crowned the ditch.
There's not a great deal of walling remaining, except on the south and southwest, where several courses of neat blocks endure. For the rest, the structure is just a grass-covered dome with a saucer-shaped depression in its summit, characteristic of the filled-in court seen in many brochs. On the northern arc of the summit some stonework of the broch's inner wall still protrudes while on its inner western wall is a lintelled breach leading to an intra-mural cavity.
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Showing 1-50 of 1,889 posts. Most recent first | Next 50
A keen hillwalker most of my life, my interest was restricted when the need arose to care for an ageing parent.
With limited opportunities to travel far from home, I 'discovered' the world of stone circles, mainly in my native Aberdeenshire.
This provided the ideal opportunity for short walks of just a few hours duration, and resulted in me visiting many places of interest that I had never considered previously.
Website:
Stone Circles of NE Scotland
Here you will find both Google and Bing maps displaying more than 100 sites of stone circles, the majority in my native Aberdeenshire. The markers on the maps are clickable, to reveal a photo of the stone circle and a link to their Canmore Site Record.
A menu at the side of the maps allows you to zoom in to any individual circle, viewing its environs as a zoomable aerial photograph (Google) or an OS Map (Bing).
Hunebedden
I've since extended my interest to the megalithic remains in The Netherlands, where there are some magnificent passage graves known as hunebedden (giant's beds). Despite the fact that The Netherlands is essentially flat and sandy, these 5000 year old monuments from the Funnel Beaker Culture are often found in exquisite woodland settings, nearly all of them in the province of Drenthe. There are almost limitless opportunities for delightful walks between small villages, taking in a diversion to a hunebed here and there.
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