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The final stage of our archaeological trip to the far north-east of Scotland involved the visit to a well known local attraction, the Yarrows Trail. This fantastic circular route links many interesting ancient monuments: three Neolithic long cairns, two round chambered cairns, a hill fort, a standing stone, several Bronze Age hut circles and finally, an Iron Age broch situated in a picturesque spot beside Loch Yarrows. What a great area to lurk around for Archaeo-cat - even when it's cold, windy and the bad front is coming
To be honest, we were so fascinated with the archaeological attractions, that we completely forgot about the weather warning!
But the Yarrows Trail comes with a warning: IT'S BOGGY. the path connecting the particular sites is muddy, wet and sometimes indistinct. A good map (and/or GPS route from WH) are very helpful here as would be good goretex boots and gaiters. Well, a pair of green wellies would do as well
To get to Yarrows basin, turn off A99 in Thrumster then follow a local road to West Yarrows. There is a good car park at South Yarrows. The anticlockwise direction of walking seems easier. The trail leads over bumpy, heather-covered terrain past several ancient cairns. The highest point is only about 180m above sea level, but on a good day Caithness views are a nice addition to the excursion. The main attractions on Yarrows Trail had been excavated over 150 years ago by Dr Joseph Anderson and Alexander Rhind. Today, despite the path being muddy in places, the trail is reasonably signposted and several info boards provide more details about the archaeological sites en route.
We headed uphill straight from the parking area, very quickly reaching the first Neolithic burial site:
This is
South Yarrows Chambered Cairn.
It is assumed that the cairns at Yarrows probably served several communities and were in use for about 1000 years. The South Yarrows Cairn was constructed on the same plan as Carn o'Get in Whaligoe: one central burial chamber reached by a narrow passage. Sadly, this particular burial cairn is not as well preserved as those in Camster, but it's an interesting first stage of the walk!
Seen from the western side, with the two entrance standing stones well visible:
Following the trail from the first cairn due south and slightly uphill, we found another archaeological site,
the South Yarrows Long Cairn. This one is much better preserved and one can even play Tomb Raider inside
At the eastern (loch-facing) end of the structure there is a three-stalled chamber which can be approached by a narrow passage. There was a similar, smaller chamber at the south in the middle of the cairn but it has been destroyed.
The entrance to the eastern chamber:
My sad attempts at tomb raiding:
Archaeo-Cat always lands on all fours
This is the probable site of the second chamber:
Looking west along the structure:
According to the Canmore website:
"The cairn was excavated by Anderson in 1865. The cairn measures 240ft in length and varies in width from 36 to 66ft and in height from 5 to 12ft. The E end has been altered by the construction of modern walling outside the entrance and by the rebuilding of the walls and roof of the passage and outer compartment of the chamber.
The visible remains of this cairn and the documentation that relates to the history of its 'exploration' strongly suggests that the E end of the cairn was originally a free-standing chambered round cairn with its chamber and passage aligned ESE and WNW. Later this was extended to the W to form a long cairn."So it seems this burial site was used for a longer period of time, and was extended when needed.
From the long cairn, we continued across the boggy moorland to the top of the trail, visible right in front of us:
View north from higher ground with Loch Yarrows in the frame. The hillock with the Long Cairn to the left of the loch:
The final approach to the top of the trail was a good exercise in bog-hopping, but soon the path took us to a spot, where we could see more attractions waiting for us!
To the right, we had
the Yarrows Fort, with turf-covered fortifications and traces of a ditch which can be traced on the southern side of the structure. To the left, two more burial sites. but let's climb the hillfort first:
There are good views from the top of the hillford, but we were more intrigued by the burial sites nearby. As we walked past, we noticed a standing stone on the top of the nearby hillock:
it is called Warehouse Standing Stone. Its age is unsure, the location near the parish boundary between Latheron and Wick suggests that it might be a 19th century marker stone. The stone is 1,7m high and 0,2m thick.
The next stop was
Warehouse West. This burial chamber is sadly in a very ruined condition
Quoting Canmore:
"An Orkney-Cromarty type round cairn with a Camster-type chamber. One of a group of five cairns known as Cairns of Warehouse, it was excavated by Rhind in 1853 and Anderson in 1865, prior to Rhind's excavation it had been used as an illicit still. It surmounts a conspicuous natural mound and is now completely ruined, but at the time of Anderson's excavation it was about 9ft high and 30 to 40ft in diameter. His plan shows part of an encircling wall face on either side of the entrance."The modern marker was added in recent times:
From Warehouse West, we could see the other site,
Warehouse South:
Warehouse South is better preserved. The cairn has 17 m of diameter and is up to 1,5 m high. I had to have a closer look at the inside chamber:
Again, a short description from Canmore database:
One of the group of five cairns known as Cairns of Warehouse, it was excavated by Rhind in 1853 and Anderson in 1865. It now comprises a mound of flat slabs, partly turf-covered 8 to 9ft high with a diameter of about 55ft, and a partially exposed chamber. Anderson found remains of two encircling wall faces, the outer of which is exposed north and east of the entrance, and the inner on the SE side of the entrance.Having photographed the two cairns, we noticed that weather was getting even more windy and cold, so we were glad to leave the exposed higher ground and follow the path back towards Loch Yarrow. The trail here is even more boggy. About half way back, we spotted a hut circle:
Aproaching the loch, we lost the path somehow and entered a wet pasture. We found a gate on the opposite end, but we couldn't reach it, as it was surrounded with a huge, deep puddle, far too deep for our boots. We walked the perimeter of the fence and eventually we found another gate and a tight squeeze between two fences took us down to the loch shore.
Hold your breath, it's tight
We followed the lochside (climbing over a couple low fences, thankfully not barb-wired) to the last attraction of the day:
the South Yarrows Broch, also known as Broch of Yarrows.
It's such a shame that this fantastic Iron Age ruin is partially flooded. The building was a high status Iron Age dwelling. In modern times, the level of Loch Yarrows was raised and this resulted in ruins being only partially accessible. But for Archaeo-Cat, boggy ground is not a barrier
Kevin walks the perimeter
The original broch is circular in plan and today it stands 15m high with 4m thick walls, enclosing a 10m diameter living area, now turned into a well:
On the southern side of the wall, we found the intra-mural passage:
Kevin simply couldn't resist...
Looking inside the passage:
Kevin's photo from the Loch-side of the wall, the intra-mural entrance to the left hand side:
The bones of at least five people were found during excavations carried out by Dr Anderson, which suggest that the site was used as a place of burial for many centuries, long after the broch itself became ruinous.
The Yarrows Broch was a superb final addition to this journey back in time. Despite windy weather, Kevin loved the experience and for once, Archaeo-Cat was meowing in high voice
Only a few minutes after we left the Yarrows car park, the bad front hit us and it rained heavily most of the way home. We timed it well
It's been 3 weeks since and we haven't been anywhere since: no hills, no ruins, not even a stupid seaside walk. Weather was merciless, all the Ciaras and Dennises of the world against us, hopefully this weekend will be better, because a mad cat at home is certainly not safe to keep
More info about Yarrows Trail:
https://canmore.org.uk/site/9057/south-yarrows-southhttps://www.britainexpress.com/scotland/Highlands/Caithness/yarrows.htmhttps://www.caithness.org/geography/walksincaithness/yarrowstrail.htmhttp://www.yarrowsheritagetrust.co.uk/yarrows_trail.html