It’s high time our rightful heritage was returned
Caithness is home of the broch, says Dan Mackay who looks here at the work of John Nicolson, a renowned local archaeologist.
BROCHS, the remains of which litter the county’s landscape, are amongst the most studied of our prehistoric remnants. They are unique to Scotland. And are considered the most iconic monuments of British archaeology.
Built around 2000 years ago they were tall, imposing structures that dominated their communities. Today their history is being rewritten.
Once regarded as defensive military buildings to which vulnerable communities retreated in times of threat, they are now seen as more integral domestic features in the communal life for our Iron Age ancestors.
These dry-stone towers, some of which stood upwards of 60ft high, had a number of inner chambers on various levels, some with additional niches and cells. A sophisticated integral spiral staircase provided access to the various levels.
It was originally thought communities would retreat within the safe confines of their local broch to withstand attacks from marauding invaders. But the idea has since fallen from favour. It is now being suggested, given the sheer number of brochs, they fulfilled some sort of allied "federation" and served as power houses for tribal leaders.
Certainly they dominated their surrounding landscapes. They were remarkable structures. The best example in Caithness is the Ousdale broch, south of Berriedale, near the Ord. Naturally, for a county that has little regard of its prehistoric heritage, the site of the Ousdale broch is neither signposted and nor has the broch itself been preserved – far less made presentable.
Scotland has some fine examples of brochs. I’ve seen wonderful specimens at Mousa in Shetland, at Glenelg in Wester Ross and Carloway, in Lewis.
During the 19th century, as the tourist blurb in the Caithness Broch Centre at Auckengill proclaims, "Caithness was a hotbed of scientific and intellectual activity". Much of this activity focused on a series of excavations of brochs around Sinclair Bay. Led by Sir Francis Tress Barry, the multimillionaire baronet of Keiss Castle, he "devoted himself", his obituary following his death in February 1907 notes, "to the exploration of the numerous prehistoric towers on his estate in Caithness known as ‘brocks’ ". He did so with the aide of a remarkable self-taught crofter/fisherman.
JOHN Nicolson, a renowned local archaeologist, was "absolutely integral to all of Barry’s excavations". The Caithness Broch Centre, located in a former schoolhouse, claims he received his education "in this very building".
Other records suggest Nicolson also attended the Old Free Church School in Canisbay where he took some kudos from being "pride of place" at the bottom of the class! He was later appointed as chairman of Keiss school board.
Nicolson was an exceptional man. Among his many talents he was a gifted sculptor and artist. His artwork is currently on display in a summer exhibition at Lyth Arts Centre.
In his heyday he collaborated with men like Alexander Henry Rhind, the Wick-born Egyptologist and "young hero", who died prematurely, aged just 30, from a pulmonary disease in 1863. He bequeathed a continuing legacy to antiquarian academic circles.
Also involved was Joseph Anderson, a brilliant scholar regarded as a "vibrant and influential figure in Scottish archaeology". It is said the artefacts they collectively uncovered "laid the foundations for all further studies of brochs".
I recommend you visit the Caithness Broch Centre at Auckengill, north of Keiss. The centre has fulfilled a number of roles in various years.
Originally dubbed the Nicolson Museum, it paid homage to its local hero – Nicolson literally lived across the road at his home known as the Half Way House (due to its location between parish boundaries). Today it is the home his grandson, Alastair Sutherland, and called Summerbank.
For a while the centre was known as the Northlands Viking Centre before being reinvented as the Caithness Broch Centre.
Run by the Highland Council, it provides an interesting, if minimalist, insight into our prehistoric past. What a pity most of the county’s treasured artefacts are either in the vaults or on display in the National Museum in Edinburgh. It’s high time the county’s rightful heritage was returned home to its true place of origin, I say!
Nonetheless, there’s an intriguing display of artefacts which testify to the sophistication of an ancient people whose culture still mystifies us.
So you will see, as you might expect, a range of pieces of broken pottery, pot lids, lamps, whalebone vessels and spoons. There are also quernstones and grinding stones from which the earliest breads were raised. Indeed, stunningly, there’s a tiny capsule of Neolithic barley seeds that links us, albeit tantalisingly, with our early forefathers.
And enigmatically, a series of curios which defy description... painted pebbles, fragments of human skulls, and a "disc with amulet powers" which hint at belief systems beyond our reach.
There are the practical tools and adornments of daily life: combs, needles, bronze pins, armlets and also early gaming boards, bone dice, stone balls... Fascinating stuff.
And beyond that, incredibly, samples of Roman artefacts; glass and pottery. And from the Baltic region strange amber rings... all of which suggest hitherto unimaginable contacts and trade links.
FOR almost a century archaeological digs in the county have become a forgotten aspect of that "hotbed of scientific and intellectual activity".
Next month further excavations at Nybster are scheduled. Local schoolchildren from Keiss have been invited to participate.
Nicolson, as the Lyth Arts Centre exhibition reveals, created a series of "neat drawings, naive paintings and quaint carvings". Yet his is a legacy of "terrific anomaly". Visit the Mervyn Tower at Nybster, the site of broch excavations at
Auckengill, to witness quite breathtakingly elaborate sculptures the self-taught crofter/fisherman created more than a hundred years ago.
Viewed from the context of a man of "humble origins", someone especially fascinated by the county’s Norse occupation and given his energies and talents, Nicolson emerges as a man who offers a unique Caithness 19th-century cultural legacy.
It’s well worth a visit to the Lyth Arts Centre to elicit insights into this compelling antiquarian whose work is somehow still relevant – still within our grasp. Few people ever achieve the recognition they truly deserve. Nicolson is one of the county’s unsung heroes.
Sharon Pottinger, writing in her Caithness Courier column, Highland Home, recently suggested "history is not what has been given us; we are our history...both in what we do and in what choose to remember".
We can imagine ancient stones languishing in fields she considered or imagine that "embedded in the stones are stories of innovation and resourcefulness that changed the world and embraced the biggest and best ideas".
Some of those stones, as Nicolson discovered, are our nation’s most iconic monuments, offering glimpses of an ever-innovative and changing world. A founder of his local debating society, I like to think Nicolson and Pottinger would have much to discuss. We need the debates. We need to decide what we choose to remember.
And best from our history, arguably, is the legends of the brochs – and of Nicolson. A remarkable man.
Lesley Ferguson, head of collections, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, will be giving an illustrated talk, "John Nicolson and Sir Francis Tress Barry" at the Lyth Arts Centre on Wednesday, August 3, at 8pm.