caithness-1911/05_005

Transcription

iv -- HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

considerably augmented, many of these being identified and examined
for the first time, while of later cairns, chambered and otherwise,
there were also found a number of fresh examples. In the year
1870 seventy-nine brochs were enumerated within the county. The
number still in existence, or of which the sites are recognisable and
recorded, has now been increased to one hundred and forty-five as the
result of the survey. Many of these, however, are reduced to little
more than foundations, and most of them are contained in mounds
entirely overgrown with vegetation. Throughout the county some
twenty-four were found to have been excavated, and details of the
excavations and a note ot the relics recovered are contained in the
Inventory.
A new class of construction, a dwelling belonging to the Iron
Age, circular or oblong in shape and megalithic in character, was
discovered in the parish of Latheron - the remarkable feature in
which is the gallery or corridor around the interior.
Several new settings of parallel rows of stones have been found
in various parts of the county.
Every facility has been afforded by proprietors and tenants to
inspect the monuments, and interest has everywhere been taken in
the work of the Commission. Ministers of the Gospel and parish
schoolmasters, as well as others occupying no official position in the
county, have been of much assistance to your Commissioners in their
labours. Your Commissioners are also indebted to the Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland for kindly placing at their disposal a number
of blocks and plates, and to Mr John Nicolson, Nybster, for several
plans of brochs excavated by the late Sir Francis Tress Barry and
not hitherto published. We desire also to acknowledge gratefully
the help we have received from Dr Joseph Anderson, Assistant
Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, whose excep-
tional knowledge of northern antiquities greatly facilitated our
proceedings.
The objectionable practice of utilising the cairns and other ancient
monuments for a supply of road metal, though not so prevalent in
Caithness as elsewhere, was brought to the notice of the Com-
missioners in that county, and the condition of many of the brochs
and cairns bears testimony to their spoliation in the past.
We would draw attention to the destruction of many prehistoric
monuments (some of them of great importance) in consequence of their
having been excavated and then left exposed to the elements, and to the
interference of thoughtless visitors. The numerous brochs through-
out the county which have been excavated are in urgent need of
attention, without which, in a few years' time, they will be reduced
to crumbling heaps of stone. Your Commissioners strongly deprecate
interference with such structures unless under supervision of persons
skilled in archæology. The attention of proprietors and their factors
is invited to this matter, and also to the expediency of filling up any
excavations that have been, or may be, undertaken, so soon as the
structure has been carefully planned and illustrated.
Throughout the year your Commissioners have had their attention
drawn to the unsatisfactory condition of various ancient structures
of historic interest in other parts of the country than that under
their immediate review. These they have, as far as possible, inspected,