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The Highlands and Islands have an abundance of archaeo- logical sites surviving from the medieval period. They include a wide range of ecclesiastical buildings, from St Mary's abbey at lona to the remains of simple twelfth-century chapels, from elaborate standing crosses to equally ornamental grave-slabs. Strongholds also abound, from early castles of enclosure that were continually elaborated over the medieval and early modern periods, and which are still inhabited today, to castles that saw little elaboration and were abandoned by the end of the medieval period. Though we know less about them, many ordinary peasant settlements have also survived in some abundance. Recent surveys, including richly-detailed landscape surveys carried out by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), have highlighted just how many traces of ordinary peasant settlements have survived in the landscape, from concentrations of dwellings and outbuildings beside their former arable to shieling sites on their hill pasture. Some have survived in such detail as to require little imagination to repeople them in the mind. Sites marked HS are opened to the public by Historic Scotland. Sites to See Argyll and Bute Bonawe, Taynuilt, Argyll. Charcoal-burning blast furnace, erected in t?j3. The Bonawe furnace relied on coppiced wood from surrounding woodlands, both beside Lochs Etive and Awe and from Mull. (HS) NN 0093 18 8 Castle Stalker, Appin. A ยก6th-century tower house inhabited by the Stewarts of Appin. NM 920473 Castle Sween, Argyll. A late 12th-century castle of enclosure. Abandoned in the 1 7th century. (HS) NR 713 789 Finlaggan, Islay. Finlaggan consists of two small islands at the east end of Loch Finlaggan. It was a key site for the Lordship of the Isles. Situated on one of the two islands was the residence of the Lord of the Isles, as well as his chapel. The other, known as Council Isle, was occupied by the hall in which the Council of the Lordship met, as well as by other contemporary buildings. Recent excavations have shown that Council Isle was also the site of an earlier i3th-century castle and, at a still earlier date, an Iron Age dun, suggesting that it had long been a focus of lordship. NR 388681 1 Iona. St Mary's Abbey, Nunnery and St Oram's Chapel Buildings, as well as crosses and grave-slabs. (HS) NM 287244, NM 287245 and NM 284240 Keills, Mid Argyll. Medieval chapel, with examples of late medieval monumental sculpture. (HS) NR 690806 Mingary Castle, Ardnamurchan. A t3th-century castle of enclosure built on a small rock outcrop beside the shore. It underwent internal changes down until the 18th century. NM 5oz63 1
Oronsay Priory, Oronsay. The remains of a late 14th-centur-y Augustinian priory, founded with the help of the Lord of the Isles. NR349889 Grampian Glen More Forest. Surviving remnants of the native Highland pine forest can be seen in a number of areas. That at Glen More, near Aviemore, and that at Rothiemurchus, a few mites to the west, are two of the more easily accessible. NH 98oogo, NH 92oo8o Upper Dee valley, Braemar area. The remains of former shieling sites occur on hill ground across the region, mostly between 300 and Soo metres. Examples can be found along the upper part of the Dee valley, part of the Mar Lodge estate. NO ooo855 to NO o4G8yy Perthshire and Kinross Glen Shee. A relatively well-preserved former landscape of pre-C;learance and pre-Improvement dwellings, outbuildings and kailyards, as well as associated cultivation rigs, can be seen extending along the Glen from the church at Spittal of Glenshee to Dalmunzie. NO ?oc?7ot 1 to NO 092709 Balquhidder. The area beside Loch Voil, running west of Balquhidder. was once part of a royal hunting forest, and actively used by the Crown as such during the 15th century. NN S3Gzo7 Ross and Cromarty Foulis Kent House, Ross and Cromarty. Built in the mid- t8th century as a storehouse for grain gathered in from the estate owned by the Munros of Foulis. NH S9)G36 Ullapool, Wester Ross. A planned fishing village based on fisher-crofts laid out in 1788 by the British Fisheries Society. The grid plan of the village is still clearly evident. NH 126944 to NH 127939 Skye and Lochalsh Armadale, The Clan Donald Centre. The Clan Donald centre provides much information for the history of a major Highland clan grouping, the clan Donald. NG637043 Eilean Donan Castle, Lochalsh. Built in the '4th century. The relatively unmodified main hall at Eilean Donan Castle illustrates the sort of hall in which chiefly feasts would have taken place. NG882258 Unish, Watternish, Skye. Tacksman's house, tenant houses and enclosures at the northern tip of Waternish. NG 239658 Sutherland Strathnaver, Sutherland. Cleared by the Sutherland estates in t 8 y, the abandoned sites of some of its former touns can be seen at Grumbeg and Grumore on the north bank of Loch Naver, at Bas an Leathaid and at Rosal. NC 634384, NC Go83G7, NC 7oi3lo, NC 689416. Western Isles Arnol, Lewis No 42, restored blackhouse. (HS) NB 310494
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