For the fifth segment of my Scottish travels, I will head west to the Inner and Outer Hebrides. As a reminder, these columns on Scotland are dedicated to the memory of Katharine MacDonald (1976-2022), an old friend, outstanding archaeologist, and proud Scotswoman, who had a particular love of the Highlands and Islands, even spending time participating in fieldwork on South Uist while a student.
An excellent starting point for my journey around this region are two multi-period maritime surveys that featured in CA 219 and 258 (June 2008 and September 2011). In the former, two old friends and collaborators of mine, Colin and Paula Martin, examined the maritime landscapes of North Argyll, especially around the Isle of Mull (see also CA 197, May 2005, on shipwrecks of this area). In the latter, the Martins returned to explore further north along the coast by air, resulting in spectacular images and discoveries alike, especially of the Viking Age on and around Skye. CA 342 (September 2018) then told the most-recent twist in this tale, when a Viking Age anchor was reported from Camuscross, also on that island, shedding further light on the ‘maritime superhighway’ that existed there in this period.
Inner Hebrides
Let’s begin the column proper in the Inner Hebrides, with some splendid Mesolithic sites. I head first to Jura, where CA 90 (January 1984) reported on fieldwork there led by John Mercer – in that issue, his research collaborator Susan Searight outlined the array of sites and finds made there by their team across the 1960s-1980s, prior to John’s premature death. Then CA 119 (March 1990) is a fine counterpoint to this, moving south to Islay and work led by Stephen Mithen at Gleann Mòr as part of a wider landscape survey of the north-west of the island. CA 166 (December 1999) returned to Islay and to neighbouring Colonsay, providing a full report on the outcome of this work, demonstrating a diverse range of site types, which can be pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle to provide a detailed picture of Hebridean life in the Mesolithic.
