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King's Cave And King's Footpath
Cave (Period Unassigned), Path (Period Unassigned)
Site Name King's Cave And King's Footpath
Classification Cave (Period Unassigned), Path (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 15286
Site Number NH87SW 15
NGR NH 8393 7104
NGR Description NH 8393 7104 and NH 8365 7080
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/15286
- Council Highland
- Parish Nigg (Ross And Cromarty)
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Ross And Cromarty
- Former County Ross And Cromarty
NH87SW 15 8393 7104 to 8365 7080.
NH 8386 7105: King's Cave (NAT) Alleged abode of the royal recluse King Nechtan in AD 724.
NH 8365 7080: King's Footpath (NAT) Known as Cadha Neachdain (King's Path).
W J Watson 1910
King's Cave is still extant and known locally. King's Footpath is a relatively easy approach down the steep coastal slope. Intermittent vague traces of a beaten path can be seen.
Visited by OS 13 January 1978
Alleged abode of King Nechtan - natural caves.
A 3m by 2m high steel/iron cylindrical vessel washed up at High Water Mark 50m SW of Natural Arch and King's Cave.
CFA/MORA Coastal Assessment Survey 1998.
Excavation (October 2014)
NH 8393 7104 As part of the Northern Picts Project surveys and excavations have been undertaken in an area stretching from Aberdeenshire to Easter Ross targeting sites that can help contextualize the character of society in the early medieval period in northern Pictland.
In October 2014 a cave site on the Tarbat Peninsula was targeted for excavation. The cave has a tradition of being associated with King Nechtan, a 8th-century Pictish king who is said to have lived in the cave in AD 724. Our work aimed to document any activity in the cave and provide an initial survey and date for any surviving deposits in the cave.
Three trenches were excavated. Trench 1 was close to the centre of the cave where a cluster of large round boulders indicated previous human activity. The trench revealed a hard calcium crust underlying the boulders and this crust sealed softer beach sand deposits. Within these lower sand deposits a layer of charcoal was encountered and sampled. Trench 2 was
towards one of the side walls. This trench showed no signs of human activity within the cave. Trench 3 was excavated at the entrance where a number of larger boulders were identified. It is possible that these once belonged to a wall built to shelter the cave entrance. The test trench revealed two charcoal layers interspersed by storm/beach deposits. No definite foundations to a wall were found, but the charcoal layers stopped abruptly in association with boulders lying at the entrance suggesting
that there may have been a wall located here which has since been largely removed.
Archive: University of Aberdeen
Funder: University of Aberdeen Development Trust in partnership with the Tarbat Discovery Centre
Gordon Noble, Oskar G Sveinbjarnarson and Vaidutis Zutautas – University of Aberdeen
(Source: DES)
