Archaeology Notes

Event ID 658777

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/658777

NG50NE 3 5923 0949.

A Late Bronze Age hoard was found in 1849 by a workman cutting peats between the farms of Gillean and Ach-na-Cloich. The objects, which were found together with several oak boards about 2ft long and 1 1/2" thick, consisted of a leaf-shaped sword, two leaf-shaped spearheads, a curved socketed knife and a cup-head pin.

The hoard is Irish and dates from the 7th century BC. It is now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1862; 1871; 1923; J M Coles 1962.

The Misses MacDonald of Achnacloich (who are about 80 years of age) state that they clearly remember their grandfather telling them the hoard was found above and to the W of Achnacloich, near the W bank of the burn (below Druim Diomhaim), upon the first fairly level place above the highest old field bank at NG 5923 0949.

Visited by OS (A S P) 21 June 1961.

(Sword of Ewart Park type - Caledonian step 2). Found 6km from Armadale Castle, 1km from the coast, on the N side of the Point of Sleat, between the farms of Gillean and Achnacloich, in 1849. The finder was a workman cutting peat.

Complete sword, length 56.65cm, terminal width 4.65cm, shoulder width 5.1cm, mediam blade width 4.3cm; badly cast; flaws over surface. Patina gone but some black patches near butt; rivets, 1 (+1 bl): (2 bl), none in situ. NMAS DQ 393 (Lord MacDonald of Armadale Castle collection).

C B Burgess and I Colquhoun 1988.