PORTMAHOMACK on TARBAT NESS Changing ideologies in north-east Scotland sixth to sixteenth century AD

The final report of the Portmahomack campaign by Martin Carver, Justin Garner-Lahire and Cecily Spall, co-directors.

Discoveries at Portmahomack in Easter Ross (1994 to 2008) were initially hailed as the first modern sighting of a Pictish monastery. The intensive period of post-excavation analysis that followed has defined six successive settlements on the same spot: a high status cemetery-settlement with contacts in Cumbria and Sussex (6/7th century), a purpose-built monastery with vellum and metal workshops and pieces from a dozen carved stone monuments (8th century), a trading farm (9th century), a parish church (12th century), a fishing village (13th century) and a township of iron workers (15th century). The publication of the results in 2016 advanced the idea that this sequence reflects contemporary political or ideological movements in wider Britain, Ireland and Europe.

The book was published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in the spring of 2016. Contact them at www.socantscot.org