Pre-history

As the Holocene interglacial periods started 11,500 years ago, hunter gatherers followed the receding ice north. Not much is known about these early settlers. However, as the Mesolithic moved into the Neolithic period, people established fixed settlements, started farming and left the first identifiable traces of human activity.

The way north from Elphin to Inchnadamph is marked by numerous chambered cairns. There’s one just across the water from the Bone Caves car park just north of Loch Awe, another just beneath the small woodland further south along the loch, and one near Ledbeg.

Chambered cairns are burial sites dating from the Neolithic or early Bronze Age and usually consist of a sizeable stone chamber with a number of ante chambers around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed.  

The Bone Caves

The Bone Caves at the base of the limestone Creag nan Uamh are a 2km walk up the glen of the Allt nan Uamh from the roadside car park on the A837. Pioneering geologists Peach and Horne (commemorated by a monument above Inchnadamph) partially excavated the mouth of one of the caves in 1889, unearthing pieces of animal bones. In 1925 another well-known geologist, J E Cree, found the incisor of a bear and pieces of reindeer antler. Spurred on by these discoveries Cree returned the following year to carry out a more thorough dig. This time he uncovered many more animal remains and a human skull with both the upper and lower jaws missing. The human remains were in a small enclosure suggesting a burial.  Further human remains were discovered in the back of one of the caves and subsequently these have been dated to around 2515 and 2720 BC.

Investigations into the animal remains discovered by Cree and further excavations over the years have revealed a multitude of different species present including those of a polar bear. This find was dated to about 18,500 years ago when the discoveries of 1927 were re-evaluated. One of the most complete objects is the skull of a Northern Lynx the only one found so far in Scotland and dating from about 1770 years ago. There is no evidence that humans ever lived in the caves, however the burial sites and the variety of animal bones, antlers and shells unearthed over the years help build a picture of pre-history from before the last Ice Age to Viking times.

Roundhouses

In Coigach, around the shores of Loch Raa and Loch Bhatachan there are numerous hut circles, the evidence of associated field systems and two burnt mounds all dating from the early Bronze Age to well into the Iron Age. The Wee Digs archeology project, set up by Anna Welti in 2012 excavated two Coigach roundhouses, one at Loch Raa and another at Achnahaird. The Loch Raa hut circle is just off the eastern side of the road halfway down the eastern shore of Loch Raa.

The Achnahaird one is close to the shore at the southern tidal limit of Achnahaird Bay with another roundhouse about 150m north. At Loch Raa, various tree species recovered appeared to be from fuel debris; these were alder, birch and hazel. The structure was about 12m in diameter. Internally excavations revealed a number of hearths laid over each other indicating repeated use over many years. Carbon dating of the earliest hearth shows a date of around 1250 BCE with the most recent hearth being early Iron Age, around 425 BC.

Burnt Mounds

Burnt mounds are always found on the banks of a burn. These mounds of heat-cracked stone are arranged around a central pit. It’s thought that the pit may have been lined with clay or stones to contain a large volume of water into which hot stones would be thrown. The stones would crack on contact with the cold water imparting their heat into the liquid. Later the shattered stones would have been lifted out of the pit and piled up around the edge, forming the mounds we see today.

Excavations have suggested burnt mounds date from the Bronze Age (2500-700 BC). It’s unclear what their exact function was but it’s thought they may have been used to heat large amounts of water for bathing or cooking. In this part of Scotland the Bronze Age spans about 2300 BC to 700 BC, followed by the Iron Age from 700 BC to about 450 AD. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin; the former was available locally but tin would have had to be imported. New technology in the Iron Age allowed the smelting of the more plentiful bog-iron deposits to make the tougher metal. However the transition from bronze to iron was probably quite slow.

Crannogs

In Assynt, the small islet at the north end of Loch Awe has some built remains on it which may indicate the site of a crannog. There are similar sites on Loch Assynt with the one close to Ardvreck Castle showing a potential causeway from aerial views. Crannogs were probably defensive sites constructed on water with a causeway linking to the shore. Dating from the late Bronze Age through the Iron Age they were typically timber built structures like the reconstructed one at Kenmore, Loch Tay. It’s thought that from, as early as the end of the last Ice Age peat bogs began to form. However there were still extensive areas of pine forest up until the early Bronze Age, when a change to colder wetter weather resulted in a raised water table and the gradual decline of the forests, possibly also exacerbated by human activity. By the Iron Age there were no substantial trees available but there is evidence to suggest small islands were utilised to build stone crannogs.

The Broch

Since 2007 Historic Assynt has been working to protect and study the impressive Clachtoll Broch. Once up to 14m in height this Iron Age tower sits in a spectacular location where it would have been clearly visible by sea borne travellers and provided an important vantage point for spotting approaches from land and sea. On the way to the broch there is a meandering dragon tooth wall dating from the even earlier Bronze Age, and on top of the split rock vitrified stone possibly indicates a small Iron Age dùn (fort). Brochs and dùns are found all along the west coast of Scotland and suggest a sophisticated society already existed along the Atlantic seaboard two millennia ago.