Hooper, Janet (2002) A landscape given meaning: an archaeological perspective on landscape history in Highland Scotland. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2139/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] A Landscape Given Meaning An archaeological perspective on landscape history in Highland Scotland Janet Hooper lot- Thesissubmitted to the University of Glasgow for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts, Departmentof Archaeology. May 2002. F Contents Volume I Abstract Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 2 Landscapes ofpeople andplaces 3 Current perspectives: present knowledge of Highland rural settlement 3.1 The Later Prehistoric period 3.2 The Early Medieval period 3.3 The Medieval and Early Modem period 4 Landscapesof experience:the ethnographic history of the Highlands 4.1 The natural world 4.2 The landscapeof settlementand exploitation 4.3 The animals,birds and plants of the farms and the wild 4.4 The centreof the world: the houseand the hearth 4.5 The cycle of life 5 Pitcarmick: narratives ofp1ace 5.1 A documentedhistory 5.1.1 The place,the strathand the parish 5.1.2 An orderedworld 5.1.3 The intimacy of landscape 5.2 The archaeologyof Pitcarmick North 5.2.1 The expanseof the hills: the prehistoric period 5.2.2 A unified landscape:the Early Medieval and Medieval period 5.2.3 The closenessof the glens:the early modem period 5.3 The story of Pitcarmick North 6 The Early Medieval kin,-, doin ofA th oll.- the power ofplace 6.1 The material context of social relations 6.2 A political landscape Conclusions Bibliography ii Volume H List of Illustrations iii List of Plates v Keys to fold-out plans vii Appendices Appendix I Interpretationof place-namesin central Strathardle I Appendix 2 Chronologicaldevelopment of settlementin central Strathardle 4 Appendix 3 Landholdinghistory of the settlementsof Stronamuck,Dalvey 6 and Pitcarmick Appendix 4 Detailed landholdinghistory of Stronamuck 9 Appendix 5 Wills and inventoriesof the inhabitantsof Stronamuck,Dalvey 11 and Pitcarmick Appendix 6 Censusreturns for Stronamuck,Dalvey and Pitcarmick 20 Appendix 7 Pitcarmick North: rectangularbuildings 27 Appendix 8 Pitcarmick North: hut-circles 46 Appendix 9 Early Medieval sites in Atholl 59 Figures Plates iii Abstract In Highland Scotland,evidence for Early Medieval and Medieval settlementhas proved difficult to recognise,in spite of the fact that recent landscapesurvey has revealeda densepalimpsest of archaeologicalremains. The publication of North-eastPerth in 1990,the first RCAHMS volume to take a more landscapeoriented approach to the recordingand presentationof this surveydata, made available a wealth of material for a previously little known areaof Perthshire.It resulted in the identification of a new building group - the Pitcarmick-type buildings - to which a Medieval, or potentially earlier date, was assigned.It raised the possibility that the general absenceof first millennium A. D. settlementacross much of Highland Scotlandwas not the case in this part of Perthshire,while suggestingthe potential for building upon the resourcemade available by the RCAHMS to further our understandingsof upland settlementand land use in the Highlands over a broad chronologicalframework. This thesis aims to explore ways in which this data can be approachedin order to achievemore comprehensiveand meaningful understandingsof cultural landscapes.This has been done by approachingthe archaeologyof a particular area - in this caseHighland Perthshire- within a variety of temporal and geographical scales. At Pitcarmick North in Strathardle, detailed topographic survey of a discrete area,where the remains spanneda broad chronological range from the later Prehistoric period to the eighteenthcentury, was undertaken.By utilising the landscapeto anchorthe often divergentand competingstrands of evidenceproduced by detailed documentaryresearch, alongside analysis of the physical remains at Pitcarmick North, it has been possible to glean a greater comprehensionof the immediate historical and social frameworkswithin which thesecultural landscapesdeveloped. In order to provide a broader appreciationof the understandingsformulated at Pitcarmick, the geographicalrange of this study was extendedthrough a wider assessmentof the archaeological and historical evidencefor the Early Medieval kingdom of Atholl. This provided an opportunity to examine the influences directing social life within a larger political and social setting. The stressplaced on the contextualisationof daily routines has produced a clear senseof place, a framework which can be seenas mediating individual understandingsof the world. Both case studies have been predicated on the belief that landscapeis a cultural construct, whose meaning is both historically and socially contingent. Landscapeis not just a passive reality, simply encounteredduring the daily routines of life, but the material context which createsa senseof place and structuressocial relations. The meansby which the totality of the landscape(whether this is topography, archaeologicalremains or the myriad of less tangible elementswhich constitutethe experienceof landscape)is conceptualisedand incorporatedinto meaningful understandingsof the world is important if the human dimension of these landscapesis to be perceived.To approachthe analysisof such lived-in landscapesmust begin to break down the barriers in archaeologicalpractice betweenthe economic and the social, the ritual and the practical, betweenthe need to classify the physical residuesof the past and the need to write a generalized understanding of a particular area or period. By stressing understandingsof the natural world, as well as the form of the landscapeof settlementand exploitation, it has been possible to draw all this disparate information together into a visualisation of everydaylife in Highland Scotland. IV Acknowledgments There are many people who deserve enormous credit for their help in enabling this thesis to come to fruition, not all of whom can be named individually here. The British Academy and a Graduate Teaching Scholarship from the University of Glasgow funded this research project. The thesis was submitted in November 1997, examined in March 1998, but, due to other commitments, not finalised until May 2002. I owe my greatestdebts to my supervisor,Dr. Alex Morrison, for his constantencouragement throughout this study and whose endlessfund of stories concerning the post-Medieval period provided the inspiration for the approachtaken to this whole thesis. I would like to thank ProfessorChris Morris for his supportin making this thesispossible. John Barrett convincedme that Pitcarmick was a perfect case study and enabled my participation in this project. He - alongside Claire Jack, JaneDownes, Paul Johnsonand lain Banks - provided constantsupport, advice and stimulation throughout the project. Grateful acknowledgementmust also go to the landowner, Sir Michael Nairn and his family for allowing accessto their estate and to the gamekeeper,Kenny Graham, for facilitating this on a day-to day basis. Additional thanks is extendedto all the studentsof Glasgow University who assistedwith enthusiasmduring the three seasonsat Pitcarmick. Tom and Ivy and all at the Blackwater provided hospitality and local knowledge. All the staff at the Royal Commissionin Edinburghand especiallyPeter Corsergave generously of their time and expertise.The staff at the Scottish Record Office, the National Map Library, Perth Local Studieslibrary also put up with endlessquestions. Many people have aided me through their constant intellectual stimulation and support; in particular Steve Driscoll, Stuart Halliday, William Kilbride, Olivia Lelong, Allan Rutherford and Robert Squair.The occupantsof the postgradroom, past and present,have also sharedthe whole processwith me. Gertie Ericsson and Dave McCullough put up with a lot in the last month of writing and made the postgradroom feel almost like home. Jo Finkel was a constant sourceof tea and encouragement.Above all, my parentshave helped in a myriad of ways; their belief and supportwas indispensable. V Introduction 1 Introduction The aim of this thesis is to producean increasedawareness of the human dimension in the developmentof the landscapein Highland Scotland,an areawhere the sheerscale of the terrain can appear to reduce individuals to mere specks on the horizon. In Scotland,the difficulty of obtaining easily classifiable and dateablematerial from the surveyand excavationof rural sites of many periods gives the impressionof insuperable difficulties which few have tackled previously. This is in spite of the often dramatic visibility of the archaeologyin the presentlandscape, particularly in the uplands,and the remarkable knowledge and awarenesspossessed by the current inhabitants of the physical remains which litter the world around them. By attempting to visualise, primarily through the material remains,the history of discrete areasof the Highlands