The Ardnamurchan History & Heritage Association was set up in early 2016, growing out of a more informal group, Ardnamurchan Community Archaeology. We are based on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula on the West Coast of Scotland.
AHHA members are a small group of enthusiasts who enjoy exploring Ardnamurchan’s past and working to discover, record and preserve its heritage. By extensive field walking, AHHA members have identified and described over a hundred archaeological sites on Ardnamurchan, many hitherto unknown, and have uploaded the descriptions to national websites.
Under the Archaeology Scotland Adopt-a-Monument scheme, AHHA adopted and worked on two Scheduled Monuments, Camas nan Geall and St Comghan’s church in Kilchoan.
Our volunteers have also been fortunate to work closely with Archaeology Scotland on the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project for more than 10 years and have shared their excitement regarding some of their fantastic discoveries such as the Viking boat burial at Swordle.
In 2019, we supported Archaeology Scotland in securing a substantial grant from the European Regional Development Fund via NatureScot for the Real Wild West Adopt-a-Monument in Ardnamurchan Project. This will allow us to improve access and interpretation at 10 historical sites across the peninsula and involve the community in archaeological digs and training.
One site has already been completed, the Kilchoan jetty. For hundreds of years, the jetty was the main access point to the remote village with most supplies, livestock and people coming in by sea. The jetty is still used very frequently by local people and visitors for water-sports including the annual village regatta and also by our creel fishermen. However, it had fallen into significant disrepair. During 2021 it has been completely resurfaced with additional safety features to bring it into the 21st century. It has already seen increased use by the local kayaking club and other boating enthusiasts, as well as providing safe moorings for the creel fishermen to carry out running repairs on their boats.
Work is well under way on a further site at the old Ice House at Fascadale, once a busy salmon fishery using the old bag netting technique, but now standing empty and neglected. Our volunteers have cleared out almost 40 years of sheep manure and accumulated rubbish, and it is intended that the Ice House building will house a small exhibition and interpretation telling the history of the site and the Scottish salmon fishing industry. We have also been extremely lucky to be gifted one of the original salmon cobles that worked out of Fascadale from 1912 until the 1980’s which, after a little TLC, will form part of the display.
The funded project will also enable us to provide educational workshops to locals and visitors, to learn archaeological techniques which will then be put to good use during digs at Camas nan Geall. Additional learning opportunities will be a series of rural skills workshops to enable volunteers to assist in the renovation of a number of blackhouses, thus bringing them back into use.
Exciting times ahead!
