Holden, T. G. (2008). Brotchie's Steading, Dunnet, Caithness: a 19th-century croft house and earlier settlement mound. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 138. Vol 138, pp. 267-292.
 Title The title of the publication or report |
Brotchie's Steading, Dunnet, Caithness: a 19th-century croft house and earlier settlement mound | |||||||||||||||
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Issue The name of the volume or issue |
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 138 | |||||||||||||||
Series The series the publication or report is included in |
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | |||||||||||||||
Volume Volume number and part |
138 | |||||||||||||||
Number of Pages The number of pages in the publication or report |
367 | |||||||||||||||
Page Start/End The start and end page numbers. |
267 - 292 | |||||||||||||||
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Licence Type ADS, CC-BY 4.0 or CC-BY 4.0 NC. |
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Publication Type The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book |
Journal | |||||||||||||||
Abstract The abstract describing the content of the publication or report |
Brotchie's steading is a ruined croft house from which several large fragments of worked whale mandible were recently recovered. These were identified as having supported the roof of the building as a pair of cruck blades (a Highland couple).\r\n\r\nThe excavation programme was initially designed to further examine the role of whale bones as a construction material within the context of the Caithness croft house. Excavations in 2001 revealed a further element of in situ whale bone that enabled an informed reconstruction of the original structure. The investigations on site also identified at least 1.5m of stratigraphy exposed in the bank to the west of the site, indicating at least four phases of building beneath the ruined croft house. \r\n\r\nSubsequent trial trenching determined that the bank upon which Brotchie's steading now sits is largely man-made and part of an extensive settlement mound. The base of the sequence, in the southern part of the site, revealed what appears to have been an occupation surface, and material from this provided a date in the range 390-170BC. At the north end of the site a thick layer of stone rubble associated with a clay- and stone-lined pit and two red deer antler picks was identified. Radiocarbon determination of samples of antler and cow bone indicate further occupation of the site in the first-third centuries AD. The overlying strata supported by a sequence of radiocarbon dates and finds indicate that the site was also a focus of human activity in the fifth, thirteenth and fifteenth centuries AD up until the early twentieth century. While the full extent of the site is currently unknown, the possibility presents itself that the adjacent knoll, upon which Dunnet Kirk now sits, forms a part of a major archaeological site that has seen almost continuous, or at least regular, occupation for over two millennia. Includes sections on: The whale bone cruck couple; The pottery; The carbonised plant remains; A short note on the faunal remains. | |||||||||||||||
Year of Publication The year the book, article or report was published |
2008 | |||||||||||||||
Locations Any locations covered by the publication or report. This is not the place the book or report was published. |
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Created Date The date the record of the pubication was first entered |
11 Aug 2010 |
