{"id":354,"date":"2019-10-07T13:43:26","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T13:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/guard-archaeology.co.uk\/wordpress1\/?p=354"},"modified":"2019-10-07T13:43:27","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T13:43:27","slug":"wilkhouse-inn-no-drovers-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/?p=354","title":{"rendered":"Wilkhouse Inn – no drovers return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New insights into Highland life immediately before the Sutherland\nclearances of the early nineteenth century, have just been published in Archaeology Reports Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The investigations at Wilkhouse in Sutherland, led by GUARD\nArchaeology, were centred upon an eighteenth-century drovers\u2019 inn and its\nneighbouring buildings. The evidence reveals a place pivotal to the local\neconomy, where the continuity of settlement within the Highlands was in the\nprocess of developing into modernity before being cut short by the clearances\ninstigated by the Sutherland Estate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We revealed evidence of inhabitation here over a long\nperiod,\u2019 said GUARD Archaeologist Warren Bailie, who directed the excavation. \u2018The\nstone foundations of an earlier structure were found under the north-east gable\nof the inn while the coin assemblage testifies to the long-term use of the\ndrove road at least as far back as the late sixteenth century. Earlier\nantiquarian finds, nearby, indicate occupation in the Norse, Pictish and Iron Age\nperiods. The excavation also found a buried Neolithic occupation layer below one\nof the inn\u2019s outbuildings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inn at Wilkhouse was a statement of modernity and\naffluence when built in the eighteenth century. It was constructed with harled\nstones, lime mortar bonding, glass windows, double chimneys and a slate roof.\nThe level of investment suggests that there was ample passing trade to warrant\nthe spend and was very much in contrast to many other drovers\u2019 inns in Scotland,\nwhich were often a longhouse built of drystone with wooden shuttered windows,\nlow walls, central hearths set on the floor and a turf or thatched roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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General shot of the site; the remains of Wilkhouse Inn lie near the top left<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The process of change also brought about its demise. The\nroadway was moved up the hillside and out of sight. Competition from newer inns\nin Brora and Helmsdale would have been damaging. However, underlying these lay\nthe demands of the Sutherland Estate. The Kintradwell estate, recently subsumed\nagain into Sutherland ownership after a period in the hands of the Gordons of\nCarroll, was cleared of its people in 1819. The inn was not be spared and by\nthe coming of the railway in 1870 had sank into obscurity and was little more\nthan a ruin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A\nrevealing description of Wilkhouse Inn in 1802 written by the Rev Donald Sage\ngives a picture of what was lost when the inn was forcibly closed in the name of improvement\u2019,\nsaid Donald Adamson:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe stopped for refreshment at an inn below Kintradwell, called Wilk-house, which stood close by the shore. This Highland hostelry, with its host Robert Gordon and his bustling, talkative wife, were closely associated with my early years, comprehending those of my attendance at school and college. The parlour, the general rendezvous for all comers of every sort and size, had two windows, one in front and another in the gable, and the floor of the room had, according to the prevailing code of cleanliness, about half an inch of sand upon it in lieu of carpeting. As we alighted before the door we were received by Robert \u201cWilkhouse\u201d or \u201cRob tighe na faochaig\u201d as he was usually called, with many bows indicative of welcome, whilst his bustling helpmeet repeated the same protestations of welcome on our crossing the threshold. We dined heartily on cold meat, eggs, new cheese, and milk. \u201cTam,\u201d our attendant, was not forgotten; his pedestrian exercise had given him a keen appetite and it was abundantly satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Thus,\nwe meet \u201cRob of the House of the Whelks\u201d as he was known in the district,\u2019 said\nDonald Adamson. \u2018Alongside him was his wife Kirsty Fraser, who may have been\nthe daughter of the previous innkeeper, William Fraser. Donald Sage\u2019s meal\nmight have been representative of standard fare at Wilkhouse. Milk, cheese and\neggs supplementing cuts of mutton and beef, although not necessarily the most\nprestigious cuts. However, the archaeological evidence reveals that the diet\nappears to have been more varied, with rabbits, birds (including auks) and fish\non the menu. In addition, marine shellfish and notably whelks were eaten.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An artist’s impression of drovers arriving at Wilkhouse in the eighteenth century <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A\nvisitor around 1800 would have seen the inn as distinctly modern in comparison\nwith the three vernacular buildings surrounding it. It was representative of\nmodernity and all that that implied at a time when farming patterns and\nlandscape use were changing across the Scottish Highlands,\u2019 added Donald\nAdamson, whose research into drove roads instigated the excavation. \u2018Every\nother structure referred back in time to building methods and knowledge which\nhad gradually accumulated in the locality. In a sense therefore, the inn\nrepresented something intrusive in the landscape.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inverted cross carved into one of the fireplaces of the inn<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\nnew archaeological evidence found on site weave a rich picture of life in the\nyears leading up to 1819. A curious inverted cross was carved into one of the\nhearth stones and may have been intended to deter witches flying down the\nchimney. Shards of \u2018firing\u2019 or \u2018shot\u2019 glass evokes a picture of toasts being\nexchanged after a meal or drinking session, with the noise of the glasses being\nslammed down on a table echoing through the inn. The majority of coins relate\nto the last phase of Wilkhouse operating as an inn. Most are halfpennies of the\nreigns of George II and George III, although there is also a Parys Mine token,\nvalued at one penny, dated 1788. The distribution of finds indicate that many\nwere dropped in an enclosure at the rear of the inn which might have been the\narea for unsaddling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four\nearlier coins suggest that the site was occupied in the seventeenth century and\nbefore. The earliest coin is a billon hardhead (two pence Scots) of James VI, dated\n1588, which seems to have been dropped in the 1590s. There are then two\n\u2018turners\u2019, one a Scottish copper turner of the 1640s, also worth two pence\nScots, and the second a French royal issue \u2018double tournois\u2019, dated 1628, of\nLouis XIII. The probability is that both circulated through much of the\nseventeenth century. The fourth coin is from the reign of Charles II, dated\n1681 and is an Irish copper halfpenny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal\nitems recovered during the excavation including pins, buckles, strap fittings,\nthimbles and a part of a comb add colour to the domestic context of the\nbuildings. Two military buttons of the Sutherland Fencibles, one possibly\nbelonging to an officer, suggest that the inn was a meeting place for a company\nof soldiers in the period 1793 to 1801, when Britain was being defended against\nthe possibility of French invasion by militia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntrade patterns which had sustained Wilkhouse Inn, up to and through the\nNapoleonic wars, with its cattle stance to one side, were about to suffer a\nconvulsive shift as \u2018Improvement\u2019 took a grip in the northern Highlands. An\nagricultural economy based on subsistence farming carried on by a network of\nsub-tenants, which relied on the export of black cattle as the cash crop, was\nabout to be replaced by huge sheep farms, which were let directly to the\nhighest bidders without consideration for family ties. In the case of\nSutherland, this involved the movement of most of the people from the interior\nof the county to the coast, to the Lowlands and abroad. The cattle drovers were\nreplaced by shepherds. The lands were cleared, the buildings forcibly\nabandoned, roofs removed and the people scattered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nexcavation was undertaken in 2017 for Dr Donald Adamson who had completed a\nstudy on droving routes in the Scottish Highlands. The excavation involved\ncollaboration between Clyne Heritage Society, the University of Glasgow and\nGUARD Archaeology, and provided training for early career archaeologists and\nalso volunteer opportunities for members of the local and wider community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARO37:\nWilkhouse: An Archaeological Innvestigation by Donald Adamson and Warren Bailie\nis freely available to download from the ARO website – Archaeology Reports Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New insights into Highland life immediately before the Sutherland clearances of the early nineteenth century, have just been published in Archaeology Reports Online. The investigations at Wilkhouse in Sutherland, led by GUARD Archaeology, were centred upon an eighteenth-century drovers\u2019 inn and its neighbouring buildings. The evidence reveals a place pivotal to the local economy, where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guard-archaeology.co.uk\/GALNews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}