The site near Gatehouse of Fleet could have been at the heart of the kingdom

Archealogists think they have discovered a ‘lost dark age kingdom in Dumfries and Galloway. The sixth century Kingdom of Rheged has always been a mystery, now they believe they have found the Royal Pictish Seat of this Kingdom.

Archaeologists believe the royal seat of Rheged may have been in Galloway

The location of Rheged had previously been thought by many historians to be in Cumbria.

Pictish carvings found in this area made them look closer.

The Pictish carvings at the site which sparked a deeper investigation of the area.

Dr Christopher Bowles, co-director of the excavation work in Dumfries and Galloway, said:

“The new archaeological evidence from Trusty’s Hill enhances our perception of power, politics, economy and culture at a time when the foundations for the kingdoms of Scotland, England and Wales were being laid,” he said.
“The 2012 excavations show that Trusty’s Hill was likely the royal seat of Rheged, a kingdom that had Galloway as its heartland.
“This was a place of religious, cultural and political innovation whose contribution to culture in Scotland has perhaps not been given due recognition.”
Dr Bowles said the influence of the kingdom had “rippled through the history and literature of Scotland and beyond”.
Mr Toolis added that they had not been looking for Rheged when they started the excavations.

The excavation found evidence the area had been a royal stronghold

“What drew us to Trusty’s Hill were Pictish symbols carved on to bedrock here, which are unique in this region and far to the south of where Pictish carvings are normally found,” said Mr Toolis.
“The Galloway Picts Project was launched in 2012 to recover evidence for the archaeological context of these carvings.
“But far from validating the existence of Galloway Picts, the archaeological context revealed by our excavation instead indicates the carvings relate to a royal stronghold and place of inauguration for the local Britons of Galloway around AD 600.
“The new archaeological evidence suggests that Galloway may have been the heart of the lost Dark Age kingdom of Rheged, a kingdom that was in the late sixth century pre-eminent amongst the kingdoms of the north.”

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At Howburn Farm in South Lanarkshire, a scattering of flints, discovered by the Biggar Archaeology Group, turned out to be the earliest evidence found of human habitation in Scotland. The flints have been dated between 12,000 and 14,000 B.C. The implements are about 4cm in length, and as many as 40,000 fragments have been uncovered so far.

This discovery has changed the previous belief that Palaeolithic man had’t travelled further north than the Midlands, with Creswell Crags often considered the northern limit of Palaeolithic settlement.

Lowborn Farm by Bigger in the Scottish Borders

Much of Scotland would have been under ice. This was the time of the last Ice Age which was followed by temperatures rising around 13,000 BC. People were able to move to new lands now freed from the Ice. The temperatures for the next 3,000 years changed dramatically, going through phases of extreme cold to warm periods. It was in this warm phase probably around 12,000 BC, that the remarkable new finds at Howburn Farm belong.

Lowborn Farm Excavations

The flints were probably used by hunters to kill reindeer, mammoth and giant elk and to cut up prey and prepare their skins.

To put this in perspective.  The size of these prehistoric animals next to a person, armed only with a flint.

Size of an Elk

Size of a Mammoth

Initial estimates suggested stone tools at the scene were made in around 2000 BCE, but in 2009 they were shown to be more than four times as old, making them the earliest signs of humanity so far discovered in Scotland. The flints were described as “strikingly similar” to tools produced in continental Europe during the same period.
“These tools represent a real connection with archaeological finds in north-west Germany, southern Denmark and north-west Holland – a connection not seen elsewhere in Britain at this time,’ says Alan Saville, a Senior Curator in Earliest Prehistory at the National Museums of Scotland who is also the President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and a specialist in the study of flaked flint and stone tools.

“This discovery is both intriguing and revolutionises our ideas about where humans came from in this very early period.

“In southern Britain, early links are with northern France and Belgium. Howburn is just one chance discovery and further such discoveries will no doubt emerge.”

“The climate had improved when the game hunters arrived, but the return of glacial weather is thought to have driven humans away until around 1,000 years later. A now-destroyed cave in Argyll had previously provided the earliest evidence of humans in Scotland.”

Howburn Farm is thought to have been an ancient camp where the hunters would make their flint tools. It is thought that these early people were hunting parties and not the ancestors of future Scots, that they took their hunt back across the North Sea basin towards Denmark and Germany. This was a nomadic life which persisted for thousands of years, until the neolithic age saw the advent of farming.

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The Eagle Stone

Nestling among the houses on a quiet hillside there is a small fenced off patch of grass, in the centre a modest standing stone with ancient carvings – this is the famous ‘Eagle Stone’, also known as the Clach an Tiompain or ‘Sounding Stone’

The stone is featured in one notable prophesy by the Brahan Seer – he foresaw a great tragedy that would befall the area should the stone topple over three times, over the years it has been known to have fallen twice and superstitious locals have ensured it moves no more by cementing it in place.

Local legends have claimed the stone was erected after a skirmish between the Clan Munro and the McDonalds of the Isles on the way to the battle of Harlaw in 1411 – a sort of practice friendly on the way to the knockout stages. Recent evidence has proven it to be much older though.

Although almost certainly Pictish in origin one famous folk tale links the stone again to Clan Munro, who’s crest symbol also depicts an eagle, the Eagle of Foulis.

On a high ridge on the other side of the valley lies the remains of an iron age fort known as Knockfarrel (literally ’stone fort’). The very first chief of Clan Munro lived here as the clan established its presence in the area. Around the fortification a small village or ‘clachan’ grew. The valley has lush farmland, ideal for grazing and growing all manner of crops, sheltered from the worst of the weather.

Knockfarrel is easily approached via a gently sloping trail up the side of the ridge but treacherous cliffs fall steeply away to one side – high on a rocky pinnacle in these cliffs a great eagle had made its nest. whether the Munro clan took their symbol from this eagle or it was just a remarkable coincidence we do not know but the clansmen saw the eagle as a good omen and were happy to share the valley with this magnificent creature. Even when the bird would lift a young lamb or goat kid they would take this as just an acceptable loss and the chief forbade anyone from doing harm to the eagle.

All was peaceful in the valley until one summers evening. It had been a beautiful day and the womenfolk worked preparing the evening meals and sewing. The children laughed and played between the small houses, outside one house towards the edge of the village one small boy sat, Lachlan, barely a toddler he rested on the grass and watched as his mother busied herself around him.

All at once a great dark shadow was cast across the valley and a terrible screeching was heard, In a blur of feathers and claws the huge eagle swooped down from its nest and caught the poor child in its massive talons. Before anyone could react he lifted the boy high into the air and carried him up the cliffside.

The cries of alarm went up throughout the village and the wailing of the grief stricken mother alerted young Hugh, the chieftain of the clan. When Hugh arrived at the scene he realised that he had to act and act quickly. He called for a length of rope and set off up the cliffside in pursuit. Not entirely sure what he would face when he reached the pinnacle.

Higher and higher Hugh clambered up the sheer face, as the village fell away below he heard a beating of wings and a rush of air – the great eagle was bearing down upon him. Holding onto the rope for dear life he tried to fend off the angry bird. The eagle soared away again and Hugh pressed on. In the fading light he caught a glimpse of a tangle of branches above him and with one last effort he hauled himself up and into the eagles nest.

Lying in the centre of the nest lay baby Lachlan. cooing away to himself as if nothing had happened. Hugh was relived that the boy despite his ordeal had barely a scratch on him but he realised that the hardest work lay ahead. No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than the huge eagle appeared again – even angrier than before. Hugh grabbed a large branch and swinging it like a club tried to fend it off, time and time again the eagle pecked and clawed and Hugh soon became exhausted. His clothes torn and his body bruised and bloody from the ferocious attack.

All this time little Lachlan laughed away thinking it no more than a silly game for his own amusement.

Munro Clan Crest

As the eagle made one more pass Hugh decided on an other tactic; he ducked under the thrashing wings and grabbed at the birds legs. Unsettling the creature just for a second he was able to pull it towards the nest and turn it over onto its back. With the advantage of surprise he reached up and got hold of the bird by the throat and squeezed with all his might.

Gradually the bird began to loose its grip on life, the struggle began to die and with one last effort Hugh squeezed the life from the mighty creature.

Meanwhile far below the cliff the villagers looked up, not knowing if the poor boy or Hugh for that matter were alive or dead. They had heard the terrifying shrieks of the bird and feared the worst. Then suddenly the distant figure of Hugh appeared, holding the corpse of this massive Eagle in his hand. They cheered and shouted and Hugh tossed the bird down, A gust of wind caught the feathers and the eagle’s broken body wheeled and glided down to the valley below, coming to rest at the edge of the village. Where the eagle fell the villagers placed a stone – the Eagle stone in recognition of the brave deeds of their chief and from respect to the noble creature that was such a powerful symbol of their clan.

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12 pits were found

Archaeologists excavating Warren Field, an area next to Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire from 2004-06 uncovered 12 pits which appear to mimic the phases of the moon and track lunar months.  Unusual crop marks had been spotted from the air by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) which led to the dig being started.

Dave Cowley, aerial survey projects manager at RCAHMS, said: “We have been taking photographs of the Scottish landscape for nearly 40 years, recording thousands of archaeological sites that would never have been detected from the ground…Warren Field stands out as something special, however. It is remarkable to think that our aerial survey may have helped to find the place where time itself was invented.”

Archaeologists believe now they have discovered the world’s oldest lunar “calendar” in the world.

A team led by the University of Birmingham suggests the ancient monument was created by hunter-gatherers about 10,000 years ago.

Vince Gaffney, Professor of Landscape Archaeology at Birmingham, led the analysis project.

He said: “The evidence suggests that hunter-gatherer societies in Scotland had both the need and sophistication to track time across the years, to correct for seasonal drift of the lunar year and that this occurred nearly 5,000 years before the first formal calendars known in the Near East …In doing so, this illustrates one important step towards the formal construction of time and therefore history itself.”

An artist’s impression of warren field about 10000 years ago showing burning material in one of the pits.

The experts who analysed the pits said they may have contained a wooden post.

The pits were placed to copy the positions of the moon – identifying the time of the year.

The Mesolithic “calendar” is thousands of years older than previous known formal time-measuring monuments created in Mesopotamia.

The pit alignment also aligns on the Midwinter sunrise to provided the hunter-gatherers with an annual “astronomic correction” in order to better follow the passage of time and changing seasons.

The universities of St Andrews, Leicester and Bradford were also involved.
Dr Richard Bates, of the University of St Andrews, said the discovery provided “exciting new evidence” of the early Mesolithic Scotland.
He added: “This is the earliest example of such a structure and there is no known comparable site in Britain or Europe for several thousands of years after the monument at Warren Field was constructed.”

Crathes Castle

Crathes Castle and its estate is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).
From 2004 to 2006, trust staff and Murray Archaeological Services excavated the site.
NTS archaeologist Dr Shannon Fraser said: “This is a remarkable monument, which is so far unique in Britain.
“Our excavations revealed a fascinating glimpse into the cultural lives of people some 10,000 years ago – and now this latest discovery further enriches our understanding of their relationship with time and the heavens.”

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The Beaker Pots were decorated with impressions made with a cord.

These early people buried their dead with a beaker full of liquid to ease the journey to the next life (well this is one theory).  There is evidence of beer and mead within some of these jars. Exactly why they used beakers is not fully understood.

The style of graves was also similar – all being round barrow graves. Unlike the Neolithic settlers, they buried their dead in individual graves, a practice which has remained ever since.  This shift to individual burials shows a change in beliefs and social systems. Individual graves had personal belongings added – this was also new.  Men and Women were mostly treated the same, interestingly the only difference was that men were buried tending to face the East, and women facing West. So one had sun rise and the other sun set.

Reconstruction of a Beaker burial, (National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid)

the Upper Mains of Catterline cist

Pottery was only one small aspect of their ingenuity and craft, The Beaker People have been credited with introducing metalworking to Britain, being the first metal-smiths, working first in copper and gold, and later in the bronze which has given its name to this era.  Also spreading the Indo-European language group and building Stonehenge and other stone circles.  Some stone circles were earlier which suggests that the Beaker People and their descendants took over or adopted many of the beliefs and customs of the earlier Neolithic inhabitants.  Historical studies found that the Beaker people appeared to be of a different physical type than those earlier populations in the same geographic areas. They were tall, and heavier boned compared to the earlier people.

The Beaker folk were farmers and archers, wearing stone wrist guards to protect their arms from the sting of the bowstring.  They are said to have brought the plough, wheeled vehicles and even the woolly sheep and breeds of cattle.    Populations grew on the richer farmable land.

Authors Neil Curtis, head of museums at the University of Aberdeen, and Neil Wilkin, curator of the British and European Bronze Age collections at the British Museum have been part of a new study ‘The Beakers and Bodies Project’, looking at The Beaker People in Scotland.  They were particularly interested in the unusual clusters between Inverness and Aberdeen and down the East Coast.

New evidence was found that shows that the Beaker period was shorter in Scotland than that elsewhere in Europe.  This poses new questions, tree rings have shown a dramatic temperature drop which lasted a year after a volcanic eruption in Iceland.  There is evidence in England of abandoned homes at this time.  Could this be one influence?

The team was able to get radiocarbon dates and stable isotope analyses from all surviving skeletons.  This has shown that they didn’t move far in their lifetimes.  This would mean a close and happy community who were able to find reliable sources of food. Interestingly their diet was also able to be studied and although close to the coast they didn’t eat much sea-food.

Surprisingly the Bronze studied in Scotland from this area was found to be produced earlier than in other areas of Britian:

‘We were also able to look at links with metalworking and monuments, discovering that the distinctive Recumbent Stone Circles were probably built at about the same time as Beakers were being made and the earliest bronze being made,’ Mr Curtis said.

‘It seems as though North-East Scotland was one of the first places to made bronze in Britain, drawing on skills from the Netherlands and beyond, copper from Ireland and tin from Cornwall.’

The study also shows that beakers found in many of the graves were decorated with a white powder made from ground up bones – something that appears to be unique to the North East.  Whether animal or human is unknown.

Unlike other places the Beaker People in this area built new monuments, stone circles, and a lot of them. Aberdeenshire has an unusal large number of stone circles –  around 30. None to the scale of Stonehenge but still fascinating. (see The Stone Circle Trail (pdf) >).

‘Much to people’s surprise, these megalithic monuments were not neolithic, but a younger and local development contemporary with the region’s Beaker burials,’ the authors said.

‘Elsewhere in Britain people spent great energy on building barrow mounds and funerary monuments, such as the Clava Cairns in the neighbouring Moray Firth region.

‘But in north-east Scotland, communities focused their collective and ceremonial attentions on recumbent stone circles.

‘Suddenly, there was an exciting new dimension to the puzzle of how and why north-east Scotland adopted new and international customs.’

So  many new questions have been raised from this study; why were the Beaker burials in these areas of Scotland so popular and why so exclusive and separate from other traditions in this region?  Why such a shorter time span? How did bronze come first to Scotland?  Also why an apparently unique addition to their burial ceremony, animal or human ash on the beakers?

Examples of Beaker burials in Scotland include the case of ‘Ava’, the name given to a woman whose remains were discovered at Achavanich in Caithness in 1987 during road works.  A young women between 18 and 22.

Artists reconstructed Ava:

Ava – This Bronze Age woman died more than 3,700 years ago

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Edinburgh has the tale of Greyfriars’ Bobby and San Diego has the story of Bum the dog, who for a homeless dog became something of a celebrity, loved by all in his hometown, much like our very own Bobby. When the two cities twinned in 1977, they each presented the other with a statue of these loveable dogs.

This statue of Bum the dog is found in Princes Street Gardens, alongside the following plaque…

San Diego has the original statue of Bum alongside a replica of Edinburgh’s Bobby statue…

Which includes a plaque explain more about Bum…

The love and loyalty of both legendary dogs forever joins San Diego and Edinburgh as sister cities.

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In the early half of 1745, Charles Edward Stuart or Bonnie Prince Charlie, saw an opportunity to reclaim what he considered to be his father’s two kingdoms, Great Britain, formally united in 1707, and Ireland. George II and the British army were occupied in the War of the Austrian Succession, leaving only around 6,000 troops to defend England. Aided by the early support of Donald Cameron of Lochiel, XIX chief of Clan Cameron, he and is party of men were successful in raising a force of 2,000 Scots.

With word of this force ready to march on the Lowlands, it was up to Sir John Cope to give a response root he government. Cope was the general in command of the 4,000 government troops stationed in Scotland, but unfortunately the most of his troops were only recently raised and as a result inexperienced. Cope and his troops marched on Fort Augustus in the heart of the Highlands in an effort to awe the Highlanders into surrender and end the rebellion before it had truly begun. Upon hearing that the rebel army was looking to oppose him at Corryarrack, he instead marched to Inverness hoping to be the one to decide the battleground. Cope had underestimated the men commanding the rebel forces.

Bonnie Prince Charlie and his troops marched straight down to the Lowlands, which by now were almost undefended. A small force which held Edinburgh retreated in the face of the superior foe, leaving the city open for the taking. On 16 September, some of Prince Charles’s army captured the city with little or no fighting, though Edinburgh Castle was still defended for the government. Cope meanwhile furiously marched to Aberdeen  are he had urgently ordered ships, so he and his troops could make haste o the south. On the same day the Jacobites took Edinburgh, Cope and his men disembarked in Dunbar.

Even though Cope knew his troops were far from the best, he was determined to engage the Jacobite force. His intelligence told him that the rebels only numbered around 2,000 men, and whilst they were fit and hardy, they were ill-equipped. Cope believed this would mean his force, in two regiments of dragoons and three and a half regiments of infantry, should easily overpower them. It was even said that on their march towards Edinburgh they assured the locals that there would be no battle.

It was on the 20th of September that the two forces first met, just outside Prestonpans near Preston house. The Jacobite army had secured the high ground to the south of Cope’s position, but Cope was determined to face the rebels and made the best of his situation. He drew up his force facing south using the park walls of Preston house to provide protection for the right flank and a marshy bog to the front. Although they had secured a good position the Jacobites were dismayed by the way Cope had taken advantage of the land. A traditional Highland charge would flounder in the marshes and be decimated by musket and cannon fire. The senior Jacobite officers knew they must change their plans if they were to come away victorious but could not agree on what should be done. It was Lord George Murray who pushed for them to move their force to the East so they could assault the exposed left flank of the government forces and it was Lieutenant Anderson, a local farmers son, who knew the lay of the land and knew of a way to get the force where it needed to go. At 4am on the 21st the Jacobites began to move, 3 abreast along a narrow defile, in order to reach the east flank.

Meanwhile, Cope had noticed some movement in the opposing force juts before dark, though this move was the result of confusion in the Jacobite ranks and was abandoned. He feared that the Jacobite planned to attack both his flanks and thus redeployed in forces in a north south front, the formation that they would fight in the next day. He also ordered that 200 dragoons and 300 infantryman should take on picket duty and light fires in the front of his position in order to thwart any plans for a surprise night attack. Cope felt secure with these measures and in addition ordered 3 companies of Louden’s Highlanders to guard the baggage park in Cockenzie, as well as dismissing some 100 volunteers ordering them to report back in the morning. Cope also made a last minute attempt to gain reinforcements from Edinburgh Castle,  requesting Artilleryman to attend his position. It would be for nought though, as the battle would take place a lot earlier than Cope had expected.

At the crack of dawn on the 21st September, Cope’s Dragoons beheld a spectacle that would send a shiver down any sane mans spine. Out of the early morning mist, making “wild Highland war cries and with the bloodcurdling skirl of the pipes” came 1,400 Highlanders charging straight towards Cope and his men. Cope’s inexperienced army wheeled to meet a foe they were not expecting to come from the east, and Cope even managed to scramble some artillery into position. Undaunted by the light and inaccurate fire the Highlanders continued their charge. The centre of this charge became bogged down in an are of marshland, which meant the straight line of the charge became a v formation. The wings on either side met with the dragoons on either side of the British force, which caused them to immediately flee.

This meant that Cope was left with only the centre of his force, which also happened to be the experienced Royal Infantry. Unfortunately for hem the unplanned flanking manoeuvre by the Jacobites, which happened when the wings of the v wrapped around the side of the Royal Infantry and the centre met them head on, meant the were effectively surrounded by Highlanders and they suffered for it. After sustaining heavy casualties they eventually gave way.

Around 10 minutes after the battle had begun, it was over. Hundreds of government troops were dead or injured, and thousands were taken prisoner whom Bonnie Prince Charlie himself ordered should be treated with the greatest of care. The Jacobite’s on the other hand had only suffered around 100 casualties. Cope still in charge of around 200 men, pulled them away to reorganise and rally them in an adjacent field, but they refused to engage the enemy further. Cope had no choice but to retreat and make the long journey south to the relative safety of Berwick-upon-tweed.

Cope’s baggage train in Cockenzie was seized giving the Jacobites around £5000, many muskets and plenty of ammunition but this was not all the victory gave to the cause. It signalled the true beginning of the rebellion, greatly boosting the morale of the Stuart supporters, and causing a surge in recruitment to the Jacobites in Scotland. The battle cemented the seriousness of this new Jacobite rebellion and it’s effectiveness to claim victory in the battles to come.

A cairn was erected in 1953 to commemorate the memory of all those that fell in the battle. A coal bing was also erected, atop which flies Prince Charlie’s battle flag, using the remains of the area’s coal shale shaped into an obelisk to provide a vantage point for today’s visitors.

In 2006 the Battle of Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Trust was established with the goal to ensure much better presentation and interpretation of the battle. Plans include a visitor Centre in the grounds of Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum, ‘Living History’ battle re-enactments, battle-related storytelling and new novels, and a new ‘Flowering of the Arts’ including embroidery.

In 2008 the Trust commissioned Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division to undertake a comprehensive survey, followed by selective excavation, of the battlefield. Although it was thought that the location of the battlefield was known for years the team actually discovered that the true site was located some 500 yards away. Based on concentrations of musket balls and other evidence, this new site is where it is believed the Highlanders charge actually took place.

Details of all the Trust’s activities can be found at its website - www.battleofprestonpans1745.org

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