Cathy was speaking about ‘Culbin Sands from prehistory to present’, based on the work she and class participants undertook for ARCH’s ‘Display the Past’ course in association with Nairn Museum last year. After researching objects and documents from Culbin the class produced a display that was on show in both Nairn and Elgin Museums.

 

And what a fascinating story their work reveals. 

 

‘One of the richest archaeological fields in Scotland’ was the description given to Culbin by Callander in 1916 and the area has indeed produced a phenomenal number of artefacts that are now displayed in many museums - more than 29,000 of them in the National Museum in Edinburgh alone, but also locally in Nairn, Elgin and Forres, as far south as London and scattered in other museums across the country. 

 

The finds date from the mesolithc period through to modern, and seem to suggest a particularly high status site during the bronze and iron ages. 

 

Cathy described tray upon tray of arrowheads and scrapers that the group were able to see in the National Museum, an intriguing many-facetted mould for bronze age axe making, an iron age leaf-shaped spearhead - the Culbin blade - on permanent display in Elgin museum - and many other fascinating finds. Amongst which are more than 4,000 beads, many of them glass iron age beads that have been made at Culbin. These have been found as far north as Shetland and south to Ayrshire and are of a  similar design to beads found in central Europe - all strong indications of a wide trading network.

 

Click on this link for more information about the Display the Past Course. 

 

Cathy has also put lots more detail about the group’s research and finds on The Highland Council’sHER website. 

 

Well worth a look for the beautiful displays of arrowheads alone.