Archaeology Notes

Event ID 661334

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/661334

NH56NE 5 590 670.

The destruction of a cairn "near Assynt in Ross-shire", (reported in a letter to Dr. Hibbert from Sir George Mackenzie of Coul dated September, 15th, 1824 in Archaeol Scot 1831) revealed a cist in which were some bones, an urn and jet ornaments. The cairn was stated to have been 'near the old house of Assynt, and in front of a new farmhouse which Alex. Fraser of Inch Coulter, Ross-shire, lately built there'. The illustration given by Mackensie does not show the four plates illustrated for the first time by Wilson, and these plates are not now with the necklace, donated in 1824 by Fraser to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS] - EQ4, although it is otherwise as Wilson shows it. The urn does not appear to have been preserved.

C Innes 1862; D Wilson 1851.

The farmer at Assynt knew nothing of cairn or necklace and no trace of the former is to be found in the area.

Visited by OS (R D L) 3 May 1963