The Ardnamurchan History & Heritage Association was set up in early 2016, growing out of a more informal group, Ardnamurchan Community Archaeology. 

Aims:

  • To develop the knowledge and understanding of Ardnamurchan’s heritage amongst local people and visitors to the area, and those worldwide with an interest in Ardnamurchan.
  • To develop our community’s capacity and skills to ensure our heritage is better recorded, conserved and shared.
  • To make information available in accessible and varied formats and channels including a website, leaflets and booklets, interpretation boards, heritage walks, school visits, an archive, talks, and ‘conversations’.
  • To ensure that our heritage will be better appreciated through a wider understanding of its value to individuals and the community.
  • To encourage individuals to become involved as volunteers, bringing valuable skills and experience while enjoying the social interaction which involvement brings
  • To ensure that our heritage will be better managed, interpreted, explained, recorded and shared
  • To ensure that our archaeological and historical sites will be better preserved.
  • To generate a wider interest in the history and heritage of Ardnamurchan from within its community, particularly younger people, visitors to the area and others outside Ardnamurchan who have a link to the area.
Cladh Chiarain clearing
Clearing Cladh Chiarain, an 18th century Campbell graveyard with, at the far end, a Bronze Age standing stone

Achievements:

AHHA members are a small group of enthusiasts who enjoy exploring Ardnamurchan’s past and working to discover, record and preserve its heritage. Some of our achievements to date include

  • Under an Archaeology Scotland scheme, AHHA adopted and worked on two Scheduled Monuments, at Camas nan Geall and St Comghan’s church in Kilchoan
  • Funded by a £4,000 grant from Historic Environment Scotland, AHHA worked with architect Francis Shaw and builder Ashley Thompson to repair the doorway and arches on the south facade of St Comghan’s, a 12th century church in Kilchoan
  • AHHA carried out a survey, and making a record of the gravestones at St Comghan’s, picture above, to be published as a booklet
  • 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
  • AHHA members have surveyed a bronze age cairn, bronze age hut circles, a possible Viking site, pre-clearance settlements, shielings, cottars’ cottages, and early crofting structures.
Field Walking
Field walking with officers from Archaeology Scotland

A Heritage Lottery Fund Grant –

AHHA is thrilled to have obtained a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £9,300 under the title ‘Sharing the History & Heritage of the Remote Communities of Ardnamurchan’. Areas we wish to develop include –

  • Setting up this website and training local volunteers to manage it
  • Producing learning materials for local primary & secondary schools
  • Setting up an archive and exhibition, initially in the Kilchoan Learning Centre
  • Digital recording of oral history
  • Recording monuments using 3D digital photogrammetry
  • Publishing visitors’ booklets, including a guide to St Comghan’s church
  • Installing signs and interpretative boards at key archaeological sites
  • Putting on talks and staging events
Deploying modern technology: using a quadcopter to survey cottars dwellings at Branault
Deploying modern technology: using a quadcopter to survey cottars dwellings at Branault

Join AHHA and assist in and support our work

  • Join our field survey events
  • Assist in interviewing and recording the memories of local people, including those living outwith Ardnamurchan
  • Help collect and catalogue archivable material from the area
  • Support our ‘Adopt a Monument’ activities at 12th century Kilchoan Old Parish Church and Camas nan Geall
  • Support and assist our ‘indoor’ research and website development
  • Assist in the organisation of talks and field trips, especially for visitors and young people
  • Work together to make our archaeological monuments more accessible.

Membership is free. Contact the secretary at heritageardnamurchan@gmail.com.