Archaeology Notes

Event ID 654180

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/654180

ND27SE 3 2929 7083

(ND 2930 7083) Site of (NAT) Pict's House (NR)

OS 25" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1872)

This low mound, of indefinite measurements, is believed to contain the remains of a broch. Some slight excavation was done in it by John Nicolson, Nybster and a small bone ring was recovered (RCAHMS 1911).

A 'Pictish House', entirely removed about 1869. A piece of silver - neither a coin nor an ornament, was found during its removal. (Under 'various modes of spelling', "Cairn of Hollandmay" has been deleted and "Site of Pict's House" substituted.) (Ordnance Survey Name Book [ONB] 1872).

Name Book 1872; RCAHMS 1911.

A highly polished ring of bone 7/8ins in diameter from an inhabited site al Hollmey was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in 1908 as part of the collection of Sir Francis Tress Barry (Accession no: HD 420). (Hollmey is presumably Hollandmay, alternatively Hollomey (Ordnance Survey Name Book [ONB] 1872).

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1908.

There are now no intelligible remains of this feature, except for a slight mound of indeterminate dimensions located on a faint eminence in a cultivated field at ND 2929 7083. No further information could be obtained locally concerning this possible broch, the excavation, or the find mentioned above.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (R B) 23 February 1965.

(ND 2929 7083) Mound (NR) (site of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

The low, presumably part-natural eminence which is all that remains of the site is about 35.0m across and 1.2m high. Current evidence is insufficient for certain classification.

Visited by OS (J B) 4 May 1982.