Prehistory

Rock shelter near Craig, Torridon

The first people appeared in Scotland in the Mesolithic period (or Middle Stone Age). During the building of the new slipway road at Staffin on the Isle of Skye, a shell midden from 6500BC was discovered at An Corran. This was a huge pile of discarded debris such as sea-shells, one of the earliest yet discovered. Unfortunately the site has been destroyed by the building of a new road, but some of the finds can be seen in the nearby Staffin Museum. There is evidence that hunter-gatherers living at this site were using it as a base to visit other Mesolithic sites in places such as the Applecross area on the mainland. North of Applecross, there is a wonderful rock shelter with another shell midden to be seen just off the walk between Red Point and Craig.

Man turned to agriculture around 3000BC and this caused the building of more permanent settlements. This was the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, and there is much evidence from these times all around the Islands and Wester Ross in particular, from the famed Standing Stones of Callanish to the Chambered Cairns all around the area, an impressively preserved example being at Rubh’ an Dunain on Skye. The most spectacular of all chambered cairns are the passage-graves at Clava Cairns and Corrimony. The area with the most remains from this period is centered on Kilmartin Glen in Argyll.

From around 2200BC Bronze and Copper began to replace the use of stone. Remains from this period are harder for the layman to find, but include pottery fragments and stone coffins.

Dun Telve broch near Glenelg

The Iron Age began around 700BC and archaeological remains from it are found in all corners of the island. There are many duns and crop circles, but the most impressive structures remaining today are the Brochs. These were usually circular in structure with a double curtain wall enclosing passageways and staircases which can still be seen at some sites. The best preserved broch in Scotland is on the remote island of Mousa, but easier to visit are the brochs at Carloway on Lewis and the spectacular Glenelg Brochs of Dun Troddan and Dun Telve. On Skye there is Dun Beag (signposted from the main road near Struan); there are many brochs visited on the walks on the island, the finest examples being at Dun Borrafiach and Dun Gearymore en route to Waternish Point.

Souterrains also date from this period, which take the form of well-built underground passages; again there are many examples on the Isle of Skye including several that can be readily entered, perhaps the most impressive being the recently excavated Kilmuir Souterrain in Trotternish, which again has a sign and parking from the main road.