Archaeology Notes

Event ID 786661

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/786661

NJ30NW 1 3084 0919.

(NJ 3084 0919) Silver Coins found AD 1822 (NAT).

OS 6" map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1902)

See also possible coin hoard at Silver Stone (NJ 3563 0901), NJ30NE 2.

Two rings and several hundred silver coins were found in digging the foundation of a dyke in 1822, on the north side of the hill, opposite to Garchory. One of the rings, of gold, is precisely similar to a ring found in Chichester in a tomb dated AD 1146. The other, of iron gilt, is very similar to many Arabian and Indian rings. The coins are nearly all of Henry III but include coins of William the Lion and John. (Detailed description of rings and coins).

NSA (written Rev R Meiklejohn - 1840) 1845.

Although MacDonald and Thompson argue that the hoard should be dated to the third or possibly the fourth quarter of the 13th century, all the evidence dates it to about 1240.

R H M Dolley 1964.

The Ordnance Surveyors in 1867 stated that the coins from this hoard to be of Edward I but such coins cannot have come from this hoard and 'may safely be dismissed as single-finds from the locality or even as strays from a 14th century hoard concealed on the same tract of mountainside.' (Tom a' Bhuraich).

The Ordnance Surveyors further stated that the hoard was found while workman were building a stone dyke and collecting stones 'from a craig or cairn adjoining...... (The coins) were very numerous and found at subsequent periods'.

Name Book 1867; W D Simpson 1936; J D A Thomson 1956.

'In 1822 there were found many..... pieces of silver' on Tom-na-bourrich. 'There were also found on this hill two large gold rings'; these, with the (1822) coins, are in the possession of Sir Charles Forbes, Bart.

A Laing 1828.

The site of this hoard is beside an area of scree and surface quarrying. There is no trace of a cairn.

Visited by OS (A A) 30 September 1968.

There is no change to the existing record. The approximate site of this discovery was not visited during the course of the Strathdon Survey.

Information from RCAHMS (JRS), 11 January 1999.