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Using Roy’s map of the area and accounts written since the map was produced, James MacDonald continues his analysis of the historical significance of the structures at Burghead. He recounts the findings of the excavations that took place at Burghead in the nineteenth century and provides the dimensions of each part of the site he discusses. Included in the paper are comments on some of the artefacts found at Burghead, such as carved stones, a medieval metal jug and accounts of human remains unearthed in 1809. After examining the evidence, the author concludes that it is unlikely that the fort was constructed by the Romans, but instead suggests that it was built at a later date in the early medieval period, possibly by the Picts.

The author transcribes a Gaelic poem "Song by a Priest to a Lady after her death", using both the orignal text and the modern form of Gaelic. He uses this example as a vehicle to discuss the orthographic issues faced by Gaelic writers who use the Roman alphabet. He also briefly expands this argument to other Celtic languages, particularly Irish Gaelic.

Bishop Gillis refutes the argument made by an anonymous author in the Illustrated London News who claimed that the two pistols he presented to the Society did not belong to Robert Burns. He first acknowledges that the pistols he had previously brought to the Society were a different set of pistols, that he had mistaken for Burns' pistols, as they were owned by the same person. He recounts the provenance of the correct pistols and disputes the anonymous author's claim that another set of pistols were the ones once owned by Burns.

The report discusses the extent of the ancient province of Mar in Aberdeenshire by reference to documentary sources and topographical evidence. Continuity from the early medieval through to the medieval period is demonstrated.

An interpretation of a fascimile of an original drawing which was probably meant to illustrate the scene of the murder of Lord Darnley in 1567.

This paper tells the story of the ephemeral and relatively fleeting use of Holyrood Park, Edinburgh between 1914 and 1919. The domestic life and training regime of the units who camped in the Park, in particular the 10th (Liverpool Scottish) King’s Regiment (Liverpool), is described using contemporary documents and photographs. The practice trenches and anti-invasion defences in the south-east corner of the Park are described, along with the large First World War infantry training camp, rediscovered during the research, in the grounds of Duddingston House. The paper also considers the interaction between the soldiery and the city, within the constraints imposed by paucity of evidence – with individuals and with the city’s civic life and its role in the war. Light is cast on socially conservative and morally judgemental views of the interaction between soldiers and young women – the ‘khaki fever’ of the early months of the war.

This paper is a personal memoir of the late David Sellar (1941-2019), written by his first doctoral student who subsequently became a long-standing colleague, collaborator and friend. It reflects in particular on his academic contribution as a very distinguished legal and Highland historian, antiquarian and genealogist. Those who knew his work in one or other of these capacities did not always realise how much he had contributed in his other fields of interest. The paper surveys David’s published output, highlighting the findings of his pioneering researches in Highland clan and Scottish legal history. His combination of history and law found perfect expression in his 2008 appointment as Lord Lyon King of Arms, the ancient office that he held with great distinction until retirement in 2014. A Vice-President of the Society from 1999 to 2002, David was an antiquarian in the fullest sense of the word, taking a serious interest in the physical as well as the documentary evidence of the past. He will take an honoured place in the annals of the Society.

This article aims to contextualise a group of Scottish plaster ceilings dating from c 1617–1625 which all include roundels with busts of four of the Nine Worthies, to be found in houses identified by William Napier as comprising the Kellie Group. They will be viewed from two different perspectives. First, the Worthies will be considered as a subject popular in the literature and decorative arts of the period. Engravings of the Nine Worthies in a variety of formats enabled this medieval topos to retain its popularity throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. They featured widely in ornament and interior decoration of this period, not least in plasterwork. By setting these Scottish ceilings within this broader context, this paper will attempt to understand the reasons for their selection. Secondly, in the light of current research into London’s plasterwork and its production in the early 17th century, the provenance of these busts will be reassessed. In 1900 Lord Balcarres’s observation of the similarity between a plaster ceiling in his house and one from the ‘Old Palace’, Bromley-by-Bow, first appeared in print. The similarities included the repetition of roundels containing three of the Nine Worthies. The London building and/or its plasterwork had already been erroneously attributed to James VI/I for many decades and this article will present the historical evidence to dispel the myths which have continued to surface into the 21st century. In addition, the documentary and visual evidence that was adduced prior to the re-creation of two Jacobean ceilings in the State Apartment of Edinburgh Castle will be examined within these contexts.

In 2018 on behalf of Transport Scotland AOC Archaeology Group undertook archaeological investigations in advance of the construction of the 9.5km A9 Dualling: Luncarty to Pass of Birnam. Six archaeological sites were excavated, revealing evidence of activity spanning the Early Neolithic to the early medieval period. Neolithic activity was confined to four sites, consisting of a palimpsest of pits, post holes and vestigial structures, some of which were associated with assemblages of handmade ceramics, struck lithics and a small but revealing ecofact record. This paper focuses on the ceramic assemblages and, in particular, the comprehensive group of Late Neolithic Grooved Ware vessel sherds. It considers the form and function of the vessels, investigating aspects of decorative style alongside lipid analysis of surviving organic residues on the surfaces of the sherds and a suite of radiocarbon dates with a view to expanding our current understanding of the function, style and chronology of the later phases of Grooved Ware in the region and eastern mainland Scotland more broadly.

North Lanarkshire Council Museums is the latest custodian of some of the founding collections of the Airdrie Burgh Museum, which was established in 1895 and closed in 1974. These reflect the wide-ranging interests of their original collectors, encompassing geology, natural history, ethnography and archaeology. This paper focuses on a collection of Mediterranean antiquities which survives today from the establishment of the museum. It results from a project funded by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland to investigate this collection, and demonstrates that it can be used to examine the museum’s development and changing ethos over the intervening period. Although they were initially keenly sought after and welcomed as valuable gifts, later curators found little use for such objects in streamlined displays focused on local history and culture. Now, curatorial networks and the affordances of digital technology allow such collections of antiquities to be researched and shared with both local and wider audiences, while they can also contribute to local, national and global histories of archaeology, collection and display.

An illuminated pedigree roll, ink on paper, possibly a draft for a more finished version, is analysed as a symbol of how the Cummings of Altyre, Moray, asserted their claim to be patrilineal descendants of the medieval Red Comyns of Badenoch, during the 18th–19th centuries. This article explores the family’s interactions with historians and antiquaries, and the tensions generated between the rational search for documented historical fact against the romantic desire to maintain epic tradition, conveying local bardic tales into the fixity of print. The descent claims are considered through six notions or ‘memes’ that elevated the family’s stature by rooting it in antiquity, but lacked compelling historical evidence. A close reading of documents from the era reveals the family’s role in influencing the creation of historical narratives, its own members emerging across the period as the chief authors of their ‘official story’.

Previous interpretations of the courtyarded quadrangular structure surviving on the summit at Tarbert Castle, Argyll had suggested this was the earliest upstanding building on the site, and a potent symbol of increased crown authority in the region during the early-13th-century reign of Alexander II. This paper will present a consistent suite of archaeological, architectural and documentary evidence which indicates that this building is a multiphase early-14th-century structure that post-dates the surrounding L-shaped enclosure, as well as documentary evidence suggesting that a later 13th- to 14th-century transition from private to direct royal control of the site took place. Canmore ID 39316

This paper will consider the oldest known image of St Columba, contained within a copy of Adomnan’s Vita sancti Columbae, created around the middle of the 9th century in the monastery at St Gallen in Switzerland. Columba established a confederation of monasteries in Britain and Ireland, centred on his great foundation at Iona, before his death in ad 597. His fame spread to the Continent, in relation to a network of Carolingian monasteries with Scotto-Irish links, resulting in a persistent devotion to certain Irish saints, the context for which is outlined here. Rather than simply being an illustration in support of the manuscript, the image affirms the significance of Columba to the culture of St Gallen more than 200 years after his death. Most remarkably, a ‘house-shaped’ shrine – of possible Insular origin – features in the church setting of this image, and this is discussed in relation to the possible origins and identification of this object, possibly as a Columban reliquary. Whereas this paper focuses on the materiality of the image and especially on the extraordinary representation of the reliquary, an art historical assessment of the image is also essential to achieving a full understanding. As this is outwith the skills of the present author, the art historical significance will be fully explored in a forthcoming, accompanying paper by Prof Jane Geddes.

The identification and dating of a supposed Norse grave slab of 10th-/11th-century date from Jarlshof, Shetland, consisting of two decorated fragments picked up on the beach beside this multi-period settlement site in the 1930s, are rejected by the authors of this paper in favour of a Pictish attribution, a late 6th- or early 7th-century date, and a probable architectural function. On the basis of a detailed examination of the two fragments of the so-called 'Jarlshof Serpent' (front and back), alternative reconstructions of the incised motifs are considered, leading to the conclusion that they probably represent a hybrid in the form of a horse-headed serpentine creature with the body conventionally decorated in the manner of the Pictish salmon symbol. The use of such hybrid symbols by the Picts, as well as the growing evidence for their erection of symbol stones in association with structures, are discussed. The paper ends with a brief consideration of the implications of this reattribution for the traditional 'minimalist' interpretation of the Pictish settlement-phase at Jarlshof.

Christian MacLagan (1811-1901), from Stirling, occupies the intersection of amateur antiquarian-ism and modern archaeology. Although not Scotland’s earliest female archaeologist, she pioneered the compilation and publication of prehistoric sites, using her own plans and fieldwork. This paper examines her previously undocumented social background and the roots of her maternal family, the Colvilles, and their fortune in the colonial indigo trade in Bengal. Colville links with Annfield estate, Stirling and Laws, Monifieth, are noted. A large Calcutta-derived legacy in 1859 enabled MacLagan to circumvent many conventional restrictions on women.

Until recently, deer hunting in medieval Scotland has been poorly researched archaeologically. In Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland Gilbert identified medieval parks at Stirling and Kincardine in Perthshire that William the Lion created, but it is only in recent years that excavations by Hall and Malloy have begun to explore their archaeology. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland recorded another type of hunting feature, a deer trap at Hermitage Castle, in 1996 and then re-recorded the earthwork at Dormount Hope in 2000, originally reported as two separate monuments. Although the earthworks of parks and traps display similarities in the construction of their earthwork boundaries, the individual sites have variations in their topography that beg questions about their function. This paper establishes that the earthwork is indeed a single monument which has an open end allowing deer to be driven into the natural canyon of Dormount Hope. It goes on to discuss its dating in both archaeological and documentary terms and then its function as either a park, trap or hay (haga OE). This last possibility is raised by its apparent mention in a Melrose Abbey charter of the neighbouring estate of Raeshaw dating to the last quarter of the 12th century, made by the lords of Hownam, a family of Anglian origin. This Anglian connection leads to its interpretation as a hay – a kind of deer hunting enclosure or trap known in many parts of England prior to the Norman Conquest, for which ‘hay’ place names, such as Hawick, in the Scottish Borders provide support.

The hoard of bronze weapons found in 1961 at Peelhill Farm in South Lanarkshire remains one of the most remarkable discoveries of Late Bronze Age metalwork from Scotland, its importance reflected in the detailed account of the find published by John Coles and Jack Scott in 1963. In the present paper, the contents, location and significance of the discovery are reassessed in the light of more recent approaches to research on hoards. In particular, the renewed investigation provided fresh insights into the use and treatment of the artefacts prior to their deposition, while the local topography may have influenced the choice of location to a greater degree than previously assumed. Radiocarbon dates indicate a likely date in the 9th century BC. Taken together, Peelhill Farm and the related find of metalwork from Duddingston Loch, Edinburgh, comprise the northernmost representatives of a group of weapon-dominated hoards mainly recorded in southern Britain. In view of the bias towards martial equipment in their composition, it is argued that the evidence of unrepaired impact marks, and deliberate damage by bending, breaking and burning, all assume greater significance than hitherto recognised. Taken together with what may be assumed to be intentional placement of the artefacts into a boggy setting, the deposition at Peelhill Farm is interpreted as a weapon sacrifice after a warlike event rather than as a ‘scrap hoard’ as once thought. View supplementary material here.

Despite its influence on Scottish crannog studies, absolute dating evidence for activity on the crannogs of Loch Awe has been lacking. This paper presents previously unpublished radiocarbon dates from six crannogs in the loch. Of these, five sites have provided dates within the 1st millennium BC, confirming the existence of Iron Age crannogs in the loch – four of which may have been occupied contemporaneously. The dates fit in to the now widely appreciated pattern of occupation in the 1st millennium BC and later reuse in the 1st millennium AD. Using Bayesian statistical analysis, dating of the early medieval phase at Ederline Boathouse crannog was improved, with modelling suggesting occupation could have been limited to just a few decades of the second half of the 6th century AD. No evidence for activity after AD 900 was recovered, though the current number of samples analysed is small and high medieval activity is well attested on a number of islets on the loch through historical references and surviving structural remains. This broad chronological pattern is discussed and ide-as that promise avenues for future research in light of new, high-precision, chronological techniques are highlighted.

Excavations were undertaken at Achanduin Castle, Lismore, Argyll (NGR: NM 8043 3927), over six seasons from 1970 to 1975 under the direction of the late Dennis John Turner (1932–2013), henceforward referred to as DJT. Publication of a full report as a SAIR, assembled from the papers of DJT, has now been achieved by the other two authors of this paper, neither of whom were directly involved in the excavations. They have undertaken this task because of their friendship with DJT and their realisation of the importance of his work at Achanduin, the results of which are distilled and discussed here. Achanduin is a small rectangular enclosure castle, built about the very end of the 13th century or early in the 14th century. Although it was occupied intermittently by bishops of Argyll, perhaps as late as the 1680s, DJT has made a case for it being constructed for either Alexander MacDougall, lord of Argyll, or his son John.

The 50th anniversary of the publication of The Games of Merelles in Scotland, by W Norman Robertson, in volume 98 of the Society’s Proceedings is an appropriate moment to mark the development of medieval play studies in Scotland. His short note recognised the significance of the two merelles boards (from Arbroath and Dryburgh monasteries) but did not seek to contextualise their discovery in either of the broader contexts of board games or the church. The moment to do this is also made apposite by the significant increase in the evidence for board games and this paper briefly introduces the range of archaeological evidence accompanied by a discussion of the religious context of such play, in its European dimension and in particular around the endorsement/condemnation debate. The need to more fully understand the value of play as an aspect of identity in medieval society and social hierarchies is recognised in the medieval section of ScARF dealing with empowerment (http://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/55-playtime) and this paper is also offered as a contribution to approaching that understanding.

A study of Castle Camus is presented from the pilot phase of the Scottish Medieval Castles and Chapels C14 Project (SMCCCP). The study highlights various challenges faced by investigators seeking to interpret medieval sites where contemporary documentary evidence is late and the physical upstanding remains are fragmentary. Informed by a wider programme of buildings and materials analysis, the paper presents the first independent dating evidence relating to the construction of Castle Camus, through radiocarbon analysis of an assemblage of wood-charcoal Mortar-Entrapped Relict Limekiln Fuel (MERLF) fragments. This data is consistent with later traditions, reporting that a MacLeod clan chieftain died at the castle site in the very early 15th century, and suggests Castle Camus was the formal administrative centre of the lordship of Sleat throughout the later medieval period. Bayesian techniques are used to correlate these different types of evidence and generate an estimate for the constructional chronology of the earliest upstanding structure. The study suggests that construction of the south-east range at Castle Camus was completed in 1280–1330 cal AD (74.2% probability) or 1365–1400 cal AD (21.2% probability). Further discussion highlights the landscape context of the castle site; with a focus on woodland resources and socially constructed boundaries. View supplementary material here Canmore ID 11544

The paper reports on research at two well-preserved Iron Age settlement sites in north-east Scotland, occupied between the 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD. At Old Kinord, trenches first excavated in 1903 were reopened, shedding new light on the chronology and structural history of a pair of stone roundhouses and two souterrains. The project extended to new surveys of this site and its neighbour at New Kinord. It investigated the character of the unusually large stone structures found there and the ways in which they were built and used. This report also considers the character of the original excavation, which was conducted by the future Lord Abercromby, a significant figure in the history of Scottish archaeology. Canmore ID 17072 Canmore ID 17065 Canmore ID 33981 Canmore ID 16972 Canmore ID 17057 Canmore ID 33980

A late 13th-century survey of Berwick-upon-Tweed includes an entry entitled ‘la Roundele’. It has not previously been interpreted satisfactorily but this paper shows it to have been a large circular site, in a secondary use by the time of the survey, at the head of the town’s early beachside marketplace. It is argued that the site’s shape, size and ability to survive in the changing townscape means that it originated in a substantial earlier structure – such as a broch or similar complex Atlantic roundhouse. The proposition accords with what is known of the early history of the Tweed estuary and southern brochs in general. Archaeological evidence for the structure may survive beneath later buildings. Canmore ID 25990

David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (1742–1829), is best known for founding the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland in 1780. In 1786 he reacquired the family’s Dryburgh estate, on which stood the ruins of Dryburgh’s medieval abbey, which he thereby protected from stone-robbing, enabling it to be enjoyed today. This paper focuses elsewhere, namely on Buchan’s architectural interventions in the abbey’s landscape, on what motivated him, what he sought to achieve and on what people both at the time and afterwards have made of him and these interventions. It is argued that while Scotland’s elites were striving to downplay the independent nation’s accomplishments, Buchan instead exploited Scottish history and accomplishment to create a political landscape at Dryburgh, centred on his statue of Sir William Wallace, Guardian of Scotland during the Wars of Independence and executed in 1305. It is argued, too, that the nature of Buchan’s politics, as one of the privileged elite who had broken rank from the ruling class, resulted in his reputation being maligned and his creation being generally undervalued by posterity, and in particular by the Scots themselves, the very people to whom he wanted to reach out, to inspire, and to highlight.

This paper presents the results of a programme of survey and evaluative excavation at a complex of five enclosures on Turin Hill in Angus, Scotland. This includes one large bivallate hillfort, an oblong fort and three smaller duns. The aim of the investigation was to re-map the surviving archaeological features and clarify the chronology of the sites. Geophysical survey was also undertaken and clarified various aspects of the enclosures on the hill, revealing a dense concentration of features within the interior of the large bivallate hillfort. Keyhole excavation was undertaken with basic chronological information being obtained for four out of five of the enclosures and dating samples from one other dun on the same ridge at Rob’s Reed. All the samples produced dates falling in the Iron Age and importantly, despite their location overlooking the rich assemblage of early medieval sculpture at Aberlemno, there was no definitive indication of early medieval activity or settlement at Turin Hill or its immediate environs. Evaluation of the rampart of the large bivallate hillfort produced an Early Iron Age date, and as such, may represent one of the few dated forts from this time period presently known in Scotland. Canmore ID 34899 Canmore ID 33776 Canmore ID 34959

This paper presents the first modern account of Torwood’s artefact assemblage and the most accurate survey of the site to date. These are combined with the results of a small-scale excavation on a newly discovered outer rampart and the publication for the first time of a reused concentric ring-marked stone and a carved face. In turn, these are combined with the results of a broader reassessment of the late prehistoric settlement in the Forth Valley. This review reveals a far greater range and variety of potentially contemporary architectural forms than previously recognised, which is argued to have arisen from conspicuous consumption in the context of local competition, which in turn was aided by the increased resources resulting from the proximity of the Roman Empire. It is further argued that Torwood may be pre-Roman in origin. The context of the concentric ring-marked stone may hint at contemporary Iron Age ritual practice, while the large proportion of local sites associated with both destruction by fire and the presence of large artefact assemblages suggests an underlying common practice regarding the closure of a site after its active use, which may share features with the destruction of souterrains in Fife and Angus. Canmore ID 47004 Canmore ID 45379 Canmore ID 44651 Canmore ID 33350 Canmore ID 30539 Canmore ID 35451 Canmore ID 45356

The anti-invasion defences of the Second World War are still a prominent part of the modern landscape (Barclay 2013). The defences built during the First World War are, however, less well known. Some of these, indeed, have been misidentified as having been built in the later war, and many places were defended in both conflicts. Even less well known are the defences planned, and in some cases built, between 1900 and 1914, as set out in the Army’s ‘Defence Schemes’ for Scotland, and in the records of individual coast defence batteries. This paper sets out the plans to defend two adjacent parts of Scotland between 1900 and 1919, the coasts of the Tay and Forth estuaries, in the wider context of the defence of the UK.

This is the first of four papers that present the results of survey and excavations undertaken in the late 1990s as part of the Uig Landscape Project on Lewis in the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar). This paper introduces the project and presents the results of the survey and excavations on the promontory enclosure of Gob Eirer, one of the earliest of the Uig sites excavated. Gob Eirer is located on a stack just off the Uig shoreline in the Camas Uig, connected to the mainland by a pebble beach. The results of the excavations are discussed in terms of the structural form, stratigraphy, material culture and environmental evidence from the site. Gob Eirer is then considered within the wider context of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age archaeology of Atlantic Scotland and broader research themes surrounding promontory enclosures.

Although the Neolithic period is defined by farming, physical evidence for processes associated with farming are rare, with agricultural practices usually indicated by environmental and biomolecular proxies for domesticates such as pollen evidence, ceramic residues and lipids, animal bones, plant remains and stable isotope studies. This paper will, we hope, invigorate discussion on the recognition, interpretation and significance of physical traces of farming in Scotland. The starting point will be the summary of two excavations, Wellhill and Cranberry, both Perth and Kinross, in 2014 and 2016 respectively, part of the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) project. These cropmark sites revealed evidence for possible Neolithic farming in the form of possible ard marks and field ditches. There follows a synthesis of physical evidence for Neolithic farming in Scotland, drawing together evidence for ard marks, field boundaries, cultivation ridges, cultivated middens, and soils. Recommendations are made for recognising and interpreting such features on excavations, and the potential benefits of giving a higher profile to the act of farming in our narratives about Neolithic lifeways in Scotland and beyond are briefly explored.

The Iron Age archaeology of south-west Scotland has always been anonymous in national synthesesof the period in comparison to better studied areas. This lack of attention does not reflect the qualityof the archaeological record however, which testifies to a rich and diverse later prehistoric society.This paper is a discussion of the range and nature of the evidence for Iron Age society in Dumfries andGalloway west of the Nith, considering affinities with other areas, particularly the Atlantic regions tothe north, and exploring the reasons for the form and distribution of Iron Age monuments in the area.It is argued that a reanalysis of our definition and interpretation of fundamental characteristics oflater prehistoric society, such as domestic monumentality, may be rewarding in heterogeneous andunsorted areas such as Galloway. *This paper was awarded the RBK Stevenson Award

The paper considers the significance of one of the largest collections of earlier prehistoric artefacts associated with a Scottish dune system. It came from a narrow spit, formerly an offshore island, at the mouth of Loch Fleet and was dominated by large numbers of arrowheads dating from the Early Neolithic period and the Beaker phase. They seem to have been made there, and many were unfinished. The original findspots are inaccessible today, but a programme of field walking in the surrounding area confirmed their exceptional character. Perhaps this remote location was chosen as a production site because of the specialised roles played by the artefacts made there. The results of this project are compared with similar evidence from the Culbin and Luce Sands.

A Viking Age or Late Norse gold finger-ring in Glasgow Museums (A.1979.19), previously thought to have been found in the Isle of Skye, is here identified with a ring said to have been found in the Isle of Jura in 1869 (together with another, now lost). This identification is based on an illustration published in 1875 by the ring’s then owner, the Rev Dr P H Waddell (1816–91). Waddell’s use of the ring as a piece of evidence in his attempts to prove the authenticity of James Macpherson’s Ossianic poems is discussed. The ring subsequently passed into the possession of the Austrian Countess Vincent Baillet de Latour (d 1942), who had developed an interest in the archaeology of Skye during her first marriage to Norman Macleod of Macleod (d 1895). Focusing on the ring as a collector’s possession, the paper takes a biographical approach, following its trajectory from antiquarian discovery to museum object.

The people of the Hebrides have long been associated with a heroic tradition of seafaring – the image of the medieval birlinn or galley has become emblematic of Norse and Gaelic power. Coastal communities in the 19th century would have been familiar with this tradition as it was a common theme of the song and story which was a ubiquitous part of their lives. However, the waters around the Hebrides in the years around 1800 were largely the preserve of merchantmen or warships of friendly and enemy navies.Gaels who farmed the coasts of the Hebrides could have little influence over this largely Englishspeaking maritime world of international trade and global conflict in the surrounding seas, although it had profound and wide-ranging impacts on their daily lives. By drawing on a case study from Loch Aoineart, South Uist, this paper seeks to consider some aspects of how Gaelic-speaking coastal communities interacted with the sea. Whilst this article will serve as an introduction to some common archaeological features relating to post-medieval coastal life, it is intended to encourage archaeologists to consider the sea as part of a wider Gaelic cultural landscape. It will also argue that critical use of evidence for the Gaelic oral tradition is vital to an understanding of life in the period. This study draws on the rich and varied evidence available for the early 19th century, but it is hoped that its conclusions may be of interest to those studying coastal communities in earlier periods where the archaeological record provides little evidence.

The Sainte-Chapelle at Vic-le-Comte is one of the most important religious buildings surviving from the 16th century in the Auvergne. It was the last of ten French royal and ducal chapels founded, broadly following the precedent set by Louis IX’s foundation of the Parisian Sainte-Chapelle in 1248. The primary function of this, and the other Saintes-Chapelles, was to provide a dignified structure within which to house fragments of the Passion relics inherited from Louis IX. For their patrons, such foundations served as important public expressions of piety, advertised the patrons’ connections to the French crown, and simultaneously functioned as valuable diplomatic tools, encouraging important guests to venerate their relics. The Sainte-Chapelle at Vic-le-Comte has received limited scholarly attention, particularly in relation to its patron John Stuart, Duke of Albany, and his position as Regent of Scotland. This paper examines this foundation and its ambitious programme of decoration in relation to the aims and ambitions of its founder. The motivations behind the project are analysed in relation to Albany’s position in Scotland, his growing prominence in France, and his strengthening ties to the Florentine Medici family. Investigated in relation to other examples of his patronage, Albany’s foundation demonstrates how issues of ancient lineage, sacred kingship, and dynastic commemoration were of central importance.

In 1985 a review of Scottish Neolithic studies from an outside perspective written by Ian Kinnes was published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Kinnes's paper offered a discussion of the state of knowledge of Scotland's Neolithic at that time, reviewing forty years of excavation results. He was also critical of, as he saw it, the parochial and derivative nature of Neolithic studies in Scotland. In this paper, written 20 years after Kinnes’s significant contribution, the response to this charge will be discussed. A review of major developments in Neolithic studies since 1985 has also been undertaken, the results of which are included here. The impact of developer-funded archaeology and aerial photography in particular has generated substantial new data not available to Kinnes; these data have been generated within a new theoretical climate in Neolithic studies, and this too will be addressed. Reviews of evidence for settlement and monuments are presented as case studies to exemplify progress made since 1985.

The Rhind Lectures for 1995–6, on ‘Death and Wealth in Viking Scotland’, commenced with a review of the earliest known records pertaining to the discovery of the Vikings in Scotland, beginning in the 16th century. This paper expands on the lectures, surveying the development of our knowledge and understanding of Scandinavian settlement in Scotland, from an archaeological perspective, down to the opening years of the 20th century. Particular attention is given to the publications by J J A Worsaae and Daniel Wilson, in the mid-19th century, given their fundamental impetus towards the replacement of ‘antiquarian speculation’ by ‘scientific archaeology’ in Scotland. The latter part of the paper is devoted to a description and discussion of the outstanding contribution made by Joseph Anderson to Scottish Viking studies, during the second half of the 19th century.

This paper explores the story of Scotland’s national survey body, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, between 1935 and 1946, with reference to Angus Graham, their Secretary, and Vere Gordon Childe, perhaps the best-known archaeologist of the 20th century. Much of the narrative describes the Commission’s survey of Orkney and Shetland, an eight year project which brought close contact with Childe, and special attention is given to debate over the Neolithic sites at Skara Brae and Rinyo. The outbreak of war in 1939 delayed their report for some seven years, but the government supported a major programme of rescue recording to mitigate damage caused by enemy bombing and the training of allied troops. In 1938 Childe was passed over for membership of the Commission, who felt that they had sufficient archaeological expertise. His extreme anger at this snub was to be reflected in a negative review of their forthcoming report, but was allayed by neat footwork on the part of the chairman. In 1942, when the Commissioners did indeed put Childe forward as a member it was the Secretary of State for Scotland that stood in their way. Dedicated efforts by the Commission finally persuaded him that Childe was not in fact a Communist threat, and he and Graham went on to record some 636 ancient monuments, while Graham alone took 2,200 images of historic buildings. The archive material (and Graham’s diaries in particular) shine a light on what was a pioneering project in testing times. The circumstances of the war, and the short duration of Childe’s membership, meant that his influence was in fact felt through fieldwork and not, as one may have expected, in the development of the Commission’s over-arching syntheses.

The Mesolithic site of Nethermills Farm, Crathes, Banchory, was identified from fieldwalking that took place between 1973 and 1977 and it was excavated between 1978 and 1981 under the direction of James Kenworthy. Kenworthy interpreted the site as a ‘hunter-gatherer camp’ with probable evidence for a circular structure, but publication of the excavation was never completed. This paper draws on specialist work undertaken immediately after excavation, together with new analyses and radiocarbon determinations from original samples. It focuses on the results of excavation: material from the fieldwalking is briefly considered towards the end of the discussion, but detailed analysis of the lithics from fieldwalking is left for future research. A number of stratified features were excavated and recorded, together with a lithic assemblage of over 30,000 pieces, which includes many narrow blade microliths. It is not possible to uphold the interpretation that the cut features represent the remains of a specific structure but it is clear that Mesolithic activity took place here, probably comprising repeated visits over a considerable period of time. The radiocarbon determinations cover a wide spread of activity from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age – though there are no clear chronological indicators of later prehistoric activity in the finds from the site. Kenworthy chose to excavate only a tiny proportion of the site at Nethermills, which extends some 2km along the River Dee. The likelihood that stratified features may survive elsewhere makes this a Mesolithic site of considerable significance – especially when considered in the context of the many other Mesolithic sites along the River Dee, from its source to the sea.

Scottish medieval urban sites excavated over the last two decades have provided abundant evidence of the animals which were exploited by human populations. This paper is concerned with three domesticated species – the dog, cat and horse – and reviews the nature of their relationships with town dwellers. The majority of the excavations reviewed here were funded either wholly or in part by Historic Scotland, in conjunction with the Manpower Services Commission, and research for this paper was also funded by Historic Scotland.

Eighteen early medieval carved stone fragments (Applecross 5.1–5.18) were recently recovered from Applecross, Wester Ross, Scotland, a site that functioned as an important ecclesiastical centre in the early medieval period. These 18 fragments join a pre-existing collection of monuments and other carved stones at Applecross, including three fragments (Applecross 1, 2 and 3) that together likely belonged to the same cross-slab. Both the Applecross slab (Applecross 1–3) and the newly discovered fragments are decorated with relief-carved, geometric ornament common to early medieval Britain and Ireland, including interlace, key and step patterns, and are of exceptional workmanship. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the patterns, which reveals that at least 16 of the 18 new fragments also belonged to the same monument as Applecross 1–3. In particular, the author has applied a new, artist-focused, artwork-centred approach to the study of key pattern and its structure, drawn from her doctoral research of this type of ornament. Through close physical analysis of the internal symmetry of individual spiral units and the negative (carved-out) lines in these key patterns, it is possible to identify where the new fragments were located on the Applecross monument, as well as their orientation within it. Furthermore, detailed analysis of the patterns’ negative lines confirms that Applecross was linked to Nigg and likely also to Rosemarkie – two contemporary, high-status, Pictish ecclesiastical sites in Easter Ross – and that a single carver or team produced stone sculpture in all three places. The Nigg cross-slab and Rosemarkie’s collection of carved stones are widely recognised as amongst the finest in the Pictish corpus, and the Applecross fragments rival them in their supreme, virtuoso quality. This is the first concrete evidence for a single Pictish artistic hand on multiple artworks – a master carver or expert team whose oeuvre spanned both Easter and Wester Ross and who created some of the greatest surviving art-historical monuments in Britain.

This paper presents an inquiry into the origins of some painted portrait images of James I and James II of Scotland which are first attested in the late 16th century. That the likenesses are not authentic is shown by comparisons with images of the two kings which have a demonstrable claim to authenticity, and by a consideration of the costumes depicted: the latter were evidently derived from sources which, although of 15th-century date, were too late in the century to have been authentic for these particular rulers. On the evidence of the sets of portraits to which these paintings belong, one in Edinburgh and another in Munich, it is suggested that the faces of James I and II were based on those of the (authentic) images of James III and IV respectively.

John Stuart, duke of Albany was born in France, but acted as Regent of Scotland from 1514 until 1524. He visited Scotland three times and, in the early years of his regency, is credited with bringing a degree of stability back to Scottish governance during an otherwise troubled political period. Albany was also noteworthy for his love of visual splendour and magnificence. In France, he was an astute patron of the visual arts, commissioning a number of important manuscripts and architectural projects, such as the Sainte-Chapelle at Vic-le-Comte in the Auvergne. Albany’s main architectural achievement in Scotland was the fortification and extension his principal residence, Dunbar Castle, in the form of a great artillery blockhouse: perhaps the first such structure to have been built in the British Isles. The plan of the blockhouse appears to follow the basic form of a contemporary Italian angle bastion. The fortification earned a formidable reputation during this period, contemporary commentators noting that it was impregnable.Further evidence supporting the idea that Albany was greatly interested in Italian developments in military science come in the survival of a working sketch, now held in the Uffizi, Florence, which bears a note in the writing of the famed military architect, Antonio Sangallo the Younger, that it was undertaken ‘following the opinion of the Duke of Albany.’ The sketch shows a square fort protected by a ravelin. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between these two pieces of evidence, to investigate what they tell us of Albany and of his interest in military science, and to demonstrate how such ideas were introduced into Scotland and then fed back into architectural and military discourse on the Continent.

In 1999, the late Professor Charles Thomas donated a Middle Bronze Age spearhead to the National Museum collection. This spearhead came with a label indicating that it was part of the pennant taken into the Battle of Flodden by Robert Chisholme in 1513. This paper investigates the likelihood that such a claimed association could have any basis in truth, as well as briefly contributing some thoughts on the discovery of already ancient objects in the past.

The so-called ‘Auldjo Jug’ is one of the important artefacts from Pompeii in the British Museum. The lower part and the upper part of the cameo glass jug came to the Museum from two British owners as a result of a purchase and a bequest. Exactly how the parts came into the possession of the seller (Dr Hogg) and the bequeather (Miss Auldjo) has not been clearly established. Current theory proposes that the two British owners received the jug pieces from two different sources at different times, but does not explain convincingly how, when and why the two British owners might have come into possession of the jug pieces. In this paper, an alternative theory is proposed: that Sir Walter Scott, when he visited in Naples in 1832, was presented with all the excavated pieces, and that he then, on his departure, divided the fragments and passed them on to two people in Naples with whom he was closely acquainted.