Archaeology Notes

Event ID 875816

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/875816

NH74NW 3 7383 4987 and 7363 4977

(NH 7383 4987) Tumulus (NR),

(NH 7363 4977) Tumulus (NR)

OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1907)

There are two mounds to the W of Petty Church [St Columba's Church: NH74NW 55], 150' in circumference at the base, 120' at the top and 42' high. In 1875, while a man was ploughing, his horse fell into an underground structure "at the very base" of one of them.

G Anderson 1831; Jolly 1885; ISSFC 1885.

At NH 7383 4987 is a motte scarped from a natural sand-hill. It measures c. 45.0m overall by c. 5.5m high and has a level oval top measuring about 20.0m NE-SW by 16.0m.

Revised at 1/2500 (OS [ECG] 26 April 1962).

The mound, at NH 7363 4977, is a natural sand-hill of similar proportions. The N and E sides appear to have been steepened, but this is probably the result of quarrying sand which has mutilated the surrounding area.

No evidence is to be seen of the underground structure mentioned by Anderson and Jolly.

Visited by OS (ISS) 30 March 1973.

Air photographs, taken by Jill Harden in 1989, are in Inverness Museum (8905.02-04 INVMG).

Information from J Harden, 1989.

Scheduled as 'Glebe Cottage, motte 30m NNE of... a motte of medieval date, visible as a grass-covered mound. It lies 1km from the S shore of the Moray Firth, within a private garden and between a vehicle track and [a] burial ground.'

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 19 July 2011.