caithness-1911/05_007

Transcription

THIRD REPORT
OF THE
ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE ANCIENT AND
HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF SCOTLAND.

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, -
We, your Majesty's Commissioners, appointed to make an
Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Construc-
tions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture,
civilisation, and conditions of life of the people in Scotland from the
earliest times to the year 1707, and to specify those which seem most
worthy of preservation, humbly present to your Majesty this our
third Report.
During the summer and autumn of 1910, Mr A. O. Curle,
Secretary to the Commission, undertook a survey and examination
of the monuments and constructions in the county of Caithness, and
has compiled an Inventory thereof, showing the situation and
characteristics of each monument, with its bibliography, a reference
to the Ordnance Survey sheet (6-inch scale) on which the object is
noted, and the date on which it was visited. Illustrating the text are
numerous photographs and ground-plans, and there has been added a
map on which the positions of the various monuments and con-
structions, or groups thereof, are indicated by numbers referable to
the Inventory. An appendix to this Report contains a list of those
monuments and constructions which, in the opinion of your Com-
missioners, seem most worthy of preservation. These, as in former
Reports, have been divided into two classes, viz. : (a) those which
appear to be specially in need of protection, and (b) those worthy of
preservation but not in imminent risk of demolition or decay. The
Inventory, which contains a detailed and illustrated account of all
the monuments, etc., has been published by the Stationery Office.
The monuments and constructions of Caithness were found to be
more numerous and important than was expected, and, though
belonging mainly to prehistoric times, they include a number of
castles characteristic of the various periods of Scottish castellated
architecture from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. The
list of long cairns, the earliest monuments of prehistoric times, was

Wt. 2393/81. - 500. - 10/11. - N. & Co., Ltd. - Gp. II. Sch. B.