[MR] BBC: Pictish Shoreline Settlement That Ate No Fish

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots and Picts,

Today BBC Scotland has a interesting story about on-going excavations at
Portmahomack (or Portmahomak) in Easter Ross on the East Coast of Scotland.

Remains from a large number of Pictish-period graves have been isotopically
analyzed, and show the villagers ate barley, beef, lamb and pork.
Strangely, fish seems have been absent from their diets, though the sea was
right at hand. Archaeologists suggest that these particular Picts may have
considered the fish sacred. Remains of a slightly newer Pictish-era
monastery, thought to be the oldest yet discovered in Pictish territory,
have been found on the site. For the whole story, see
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-52563424 .

More about the excavations, including photos of some artifacts from the
site, can be found at
https://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/sites/tarbat/finds.html . Note
that this URL takes you right to the finds page, the most interesting
section of a rather large web site. Many fragments of Pictish sculpture
have been recovered at the site, and a slide show/catalog of these is
accessed at
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/sites/tarbat/stonecat/sculptureShow.html
.

A brief Wikipedia history of Portmahomack and events on the Tarbat
Peninsula is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmahomack . It was a busy
place, the site of two battles, and the monastery was burned around 800,
possibly courtesy of some Vikings.

The restored Ballone Castle is located near Pormahomack. This is a 16th
century tower house in the shape of a "Z", a defensive plan that allowed
the two ends of the "Z" to cover the walls of the central block. One end
has a round tower, and the other end is square, suggesting two (or more)
building phases. There are several web sites for Ballone castle. At random
I picked the Scottish Castles Association' site, which offers
before-and-after photos of the restored building:
https://www.scottishcastlesassociation.com/about-us/associated-castles/ballone-castle.htm
. It is an impressive castle!

If you are stuck in your own manor house, as I am, you could spend a couple
hours in pleasant diversion exploring these web pages.

Stay well and safe.

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆