Cape Wrath survey

This August, RCAHMS, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence (Defence Estates) spent two weeks in the Cape Wrath Training Area – the location for recent joint services and NATO manoeuvres – mapping, noting and photographing all the archaeological and architectural monuments.

Best known for its lighthouse, built by George Stevenson in 1828, and its spectacular scenery, Cape Wrath also contains evidence of occupation since the prehistoric period. Extending over some 60 square kilometres of rough moorland, much of it blanket bog, the empty wilderness that greets visitors today belies a history that has seen the land used for subsistence farming, a giant sheep-run, a shooting estate for the Duke of Sutherland, and a naval bombing range.

The area has never before been systematically searched for its hidden past and RCAHMS survey has made a number of discoveries that give a better understanding of the human influence on the landscape throughout the past 4000 years.

From traces of a Norse farm building, and the remains of a hunting lodge built by the Sutherland Estate in 1874, to the bombed-out shells of armoured personnel carriers on the target range, the remote landscape has thrown up a number of important finds.

The full results of the survey will be published in a report for Defence Estates and included on RCAHMS searchable online database Canmore.