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Proc Soc Antiq Scot 143 (2013), 265–302EXCAVATIONS AT BALLACHLY, DUNBEATH, CAITHNEss, 2007–10 | 265 Excavations at the early and later medieval site of Ballachly, Dunbeath, Caithness, 2007–10 Lloyd Laing*, Edward Oakley†, Anne E Sassin‡ and Imogen Tompsett§ ABSTRACT Excavation and field survey at Ballachly, Dunbeath, Caithness in 2007–10 produced evidence which suggests the existence of a possibly early medieval and later Norse site centred around the hillock known as Chapel Hill, on top of which is located an, as of yet, indeterminate unicameral stone building. The site, already well-known for its Early Christian inscribed stones, lay within a substantial stone-walled enclosure of late medieval to early post-medieval date, possibly constructed to enclose an undeveloped burgh of barony, thought to be Magnusburgh, which was reported to have been licensed in 1624. Although most of the enclosed area did not yield evidence of occupation, two separate areas at the base of the hillock produced evidence for medieval industrial activity, including ironworking and a cobbled possible working surface. This activity post-dated a palaeo-channel, possibly reused as a ditch, and substantial stone wall, forming a possible boundary enclosure, whose lower-lying area has since been heavily disturbed by flooding and subsequent agricultural activity. Evidence of the site’s association with an early monastery was not substantiated, though the site’s character still suggests a former centre of some importance. INTRODUCTION substantial radiating stone walls, ruins on top of its hill and local historic accounts of a chapel or In 1996, whilst rebuilding a wall on his croft at monastery and associated churchyard (illus 3). Ballachly, landowner George Bethune discovered However, investigation itself remained limited the upper portion of a probable upright cross- to non-invasive surveys and historical sources, slab, which would come to be known as the c 7th until the initiative was taken in 2007 to conduct century ‘Ballachly Stone’ (illus 1), subsequently further survey work and trial trenching, followed followed by the unearthing of fragments from by a three-year excavation project led by a team a further stone in the same vicinity (illus 2), a from the University of Nottingham. later interlaced cross-slab (Blackie & Macauley 1998: 9–10). With the 19th century discovery SITE BACKGROUND of the silver penannular ‘Achavrole (Dunbeath) Brooch’ of early 8th century date nearby Ballachly is located at ND 1567 3035 in (Anderson 1880), speculation about the site’s Dunbeath, Caithness, Highland Region, in early medieval (and possibly ecclesiastical) the south-eastern parish of Latheron (illus 4), significance increased, already augmented by its just over 1km from the sea. Chapel Hill lies * Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD † The Environmental Dimension Partnership, Tithe Barn, Barnsley Park Estate, Barnsley, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5EG ‡ Department of History and American Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University, North Holmes Road, Canterbury, Kent CT1 1QU § 31 Foxes Bank Drive, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 1WA 266 | SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, 2013 Illus 1 Photograph of ‘Ballachly Stone’ Illus 2 Photograph of interlaced stone EXCAVATIONS AT BALLACHLY, DUNBEATH, CAITHNEss, 2007–10 | 267 in a river valley just north of the main village position between the two waterways, and one of settlement, at the point where the Houstry Burn nine brochs of the strath area (RCAHMS site no and Dunbeath Water converge before opening ND13SE 17). Some of the present topography out into the sea, a strath whose tranquil fauna is of recent creation, most notably in the late and vegetation inspired much of the writing of 19th century when a path along the river was Dunbeath’s most famous citizen, local author constructed, adjoining the site to the south and Neil Gunn (eg Gunn 1937). Much of the site is west, with the course of the burn also altered. a Scheduled Monument (Index Number 2704). The extant appearance is overall of a discrete The geology is mostly composed of glacial space, defined by the burn’s natural features and sands and gravels (Berriedale Sandstone the high ground to the east, and dominated by Formation), overlain in part by flood deposits Chapel Hill (illus 5). from the river. Most of the site is low lying, but On the top of the hill are a series of low it is dominated by the central hillock, known as walls, which form a roughly east/west aligned Chapel Hill, which forms the highest of three structure, initially thought to represent a late river valley terraces. Bounded by the Dunbeath medieval or post-medieval chapel and described Water and Houstry Burn, which forms a broad as such in the scheduling. Apart from these curve on the western and southern sides, the site remains, the most notable man-made features is overlooked by high sandstone cliffs to the of the site are two walls running out from the east, as well as the Dun Beath broch to the north- base of the hill, known from previous surveys west, immediately opposite and in a prominent as Wall A and Wall B, and a third, Wall C, on a Illus 3 Overview of Ballachly from the south, with Chapel Hill and Wall A in the centre and the croft behind 268 | SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, 2013 Illus 4 Site map EXCAVATIONS AT BALLACHLY, DUNBEATH, CAITHNEss, 2007–10 | 269 north/south ridge, which is less substantial than date (Edwards 2007: 332–3; Lionard 1961: 120, the other two.1 A fourth wall, Wall D, runs along fig 15.1). A Merovingian parallel at Cheminot the side of the footpath bordering the Dunbeath (Moselle) also has a fish and cross and dates to Water, before turning north, with survey work the 7th century (Salin 1952: fig 86), whilst at by the landowner, Mr Bethune, indicating that Mayence in Germany, an example of a hanging a corresponding wall runs along the crest of cross depiction dates a century earlier (ibid: fig the northern cliff, effectively enclosing the site. 42), and with the spiralled arm treatment of the There are suggestions that Wall C may have continued to join the base of Chapel Hill to the east, but it has been mostly removed by cutting through the tail of the hill to form the eastern Drayhorse entrance. Chapel Hill, together with the low-lying terrace to the west bounded by Wall A and Wall B, form the scheduled area, the latter which was thought to represent the area of a graveyard, where antiquarian evidence suggested the disturbance of graves during flooding (see below). The previous discovery of two Early Christian inscribed stones that dated roughly to between the 7th and the 10th centuries augmented the evidence for an ecclesiastical site in the vicinity. The latter of these (Ballachly 2; RCAHMS site no ND13SE 133), now in three fragments, is what has been interpreted as the arm of an interlace cross of similar style to that on the upper panel of the ‘MacAlister’ cross-shaft at Rothesay on Bute (Fisher 2001: 80–1), though no precise parallels can be drawn. The former (Ballachly 1) is an even more unusual example of a cross-slab which appears to depict a cross either suspended or on a standard, with non-uniform cruciform attributes, elements of a tentative Chi-Rho and an associated fish symbol.2 Often linked to baptismal waters, such as wells, the latter symbol also features in Irish and Welsh contexts, as at Llandeilo, Pembrokeshire and Fuerty, Co. Roscommon, of 7th to 8th century Illus 5 Plan of main features of site 270 | SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, 2013 expanded cross-arms, suggestive of Ionan and me it had been a small monastery called of old, Irish work, the stone is not easily paralleled in the Chapel or Church of Peace. There is still a western Scotland (Sheehan 1994; Fisher 2001, stone wall round the rising ground, which would 23). With the additional recent discovery of the appear to have been a garden of late (in Craven contentious Anglo-Saxon and Viking runes of 1886: 191). the ‘Portormin Stone’ (illus 4) from the nearby A further mention of the ecclesiastical site can beach (A Jones & M K C MacMahon pers be found in the Ordnance Survey Name Books comms), the significance of the site’s sculpture for the parish of Latheron, in 1871: is made apparent, even if nothing more can be ascertained about their source of production. The chapel and graveyard are said to have existed, the former from tradition, collected in the vicinity up till the dawn of the Reformation, and the latter HISTORICAL BACKGROUND till a much later period. A portion of it being still Documentation for Ballachly is very limited, visible during the last century. The greater part of though common for Early Christian sites in it was swept away, the coffins having been seen general in Scotland, and whilst a possible carried away by a great flood that took place, reference to the adjacent broch rather than the the ‘burn of Houstry’ overflowing its banks and submerging the graveyard, carrying away the centre at Chapel Hill, the Annals of Ulster refer greater portion of it. Little of it was exposed to to the siege of Dún Baite in ad 680 (Mac Airt & view after that (Latheron Name Book 1871). Mac Niocaill 1983: 147). The place name itself is probably derived from baile claidh (‘town of The First Edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map the burial ground’) (Beaton 1909: 63). Timothy of 1871 locates the graveyard not on the hill Pont’s map, compiled from data assembled in (where burial would have been difficult) but on the late 16th century and printed in 1613, shows the low ground at its base.

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