Antiquities, were fixed were of bone also, but the use of them is un

known.

It may be observed, in general, that in form these buildings are almost without exception of a circular base, rising into the shape of a cone, with its top somewhat blunted; and as they are generally every where in ruins, their outside is covered with a thick sward of fine grass, and on a superficial view they have very much the appearance of large tumuli or barrows. Stones of a convenient form, and of a large size, without any sort of cement, are the materials of which they have been constructed; and, on a more narrow inspection, they appear evidently to be of two kinds, differing from each other both in their structure and dimensions. The smaller, which seems to be the oldest, consist of one thick circular wall, in the inside of which there are sometimes places that might have served for beds and this form, we are told, was agreeable to a mode of building among the people of Iceland and other Scandinavian colonies. In some of them at a greater, and in others at a less height, this wall begins to converge gradually towards the top, till only a small hole remained, which seems to have been either covered with flat stones, or suffered to be open. The larger are far more complicated in their internal structure. Besides the outer wall, which they have in common with the former, they have also an inner one, concentric with and distant about two feet from the other and these walls are so formed as sometimes to meet at no great height, and thus inclose a space around the bottom of the building. In the form of others of this kind there is still greater variety. Like the the former, they have two walls, but these neither meet nor coverge, but ascend parallel to each other, at the distance of little more than two feet; and this space, which is entered by a door of two feet high from without, is

occupied by a stair, of a winding spiral form, from the Antiquities bottom to the top of the building. The largest kind, Picts hou which are here, as well as in other places, denominated sc burghs, are surrounded by a broad deep ditch and a sort of rampart. The walls of these buildings are usually nine or ten feet in thickness. It seems evident that the builders of them knew not how to throw an arch; and they are even perhaps older than that invention. This explains the cause of the narrowness of their cells, and of the walls being made to converge towards each other. It seems probable that these buildings were used as granaries for provisions, or as places into which the women and children retreated when the men were at a distance engaged in war. They sometimes stand on high land near the sea; and several of them here are found in every parish. They are usually placed on the brinks of precipitous rocks, but much oftener on the skirts of sandy bays, and in the vicinity of landing places. They usually stretch, in a chain, from one headland to another, in full view of the harbour and of the ocean; and have been evidently so arranged as to communicate one with another. Far from being confined to this place, they are found, and that too in similar situations, in the country from which the Picts originally came, as well as in those that constituted their own extensive dominion. In proof of this, it may be observed, that there is a remarkable one of that kind at Snalsburg near Drontheim; another, called the Castle of Ymsburg, in Westrogothia. Many of them are still to be seen on the shores of Caithness, of Sutherland, and of East Ross. The vale of Glenelg, near Bernera, contains no fewer than four. The foundation of several have been discovered on a plain near Perth; and that of Dornodilla, in Strathnaver, is no less distinguished for its structure than the very large one at VOL. V.

B

Antiquities. Dunrobin Castle, which seems to have within its precincts several smaller ones, its connections or dependents. But turning from these, if we direct our attention to the north, with a view to explore the Pictish territories in that quarter, we shall find these ancient structures perhaps in greater number, but certainly more entire, of a more curious form, and of much larger dimensions. Those found in Shetland, and known every where in that country by the name of burghs, are much superior, in these respects, to what are here, or even perhaps to any in Scotland. In the south, and on the east coast, there are but few of them now entire; having been demolished, partly from curiosity, to know their structure and contents, and partly to carry off their materials to inclose lands or build farm houses. But among the islands, both on the north and west of Scotland, and along the whole west coast of the Highlands, where there has been no want of materials for these purposes, these curious edifices have been suffered to remain unhurt, in testimony of the respect that the inhabitants have entertained for the works of their ancestors.

In the parish of Latheron, towards the western part of the county, are several old castles, as well as Pictish buildings, of the nature now mentioned. The castles are, Berrydale, Dunbeath (still inhabited), Knockinnon, Latheron, Forss, Swingle, and Clyth. These were places of strength in the days of rapine and violence. Most of these castles stood on a high rock above the sea, and cut off from the land by a deep ditch with a drawbridge. Part of the walls of the old castle at Achaistal still remain entire, and human bones are occasionally found in Achaistal the ruins. The old castle of Achaistal was built and possessed by John Beg, third son to the Earl of Sutherland. In those times, parties of robbers or freebooters used to infest this county. A party of these came to John Beg's

Castle.

house, and insisted that he should pay a certain sum Antiquities in name of tribute, otherwise they would plunder his house and carry away his cattle. John Beg seemed very passive to them, and entertained them very sumptuously, until he got them all intoxicated, by strong ale mixed with the juice of nightshade, when he ordered them to be conveyed to the upper apartments of his castle. He then removed his family and furniture, and put them on board a vessel at the water-mouth of Berrydale; and having collected a great quantity of straw and brushwood into the lower parts of his house, he set fire to it, which soon destroyed the robbers, and consumed all the castle excepting a part of the walls. John Beg returned with his family to Sutherland.

The castle of Berrydale, or Berrudale, is remarkable on account of its last inhabitant, who was a giant, called William More. His history is singular.

giant.

About the end of the fifteenth century, Hector Suther- Hector Su land, commonly called Hector More, or Meikle Hector, therland, s was proprietor of the estate of Langwell. He was descended of the family of Duffus, and resided in a castle on a rock at the water-mouth of Berrydale, the ruins of which are still visible. He built a house at Langwell for his eldest son William, who married a beautiful woman, and resided there. Some time afterwards William's wife was in childbed of her first child, and Robert Gun, tacksman of Braemore, came over the hills to Langwell, accompanied by some of his clan, on a hunting party. Robert Gun proposed to his friends that they would pay a visit to Hector More's son and his young wife; which they accordingly did. Robert Gun, upon seeing the wo man in bed, fancied her. Upon their way home, Gun de clared to his companions that he would have William Su therland's wife to himself; and that the only means by

Antiquities, which he could accomplish his design was to take away her husband's life. His friends, whose consciences were not more strait-laced than his own, having approved of his intention, they accompanied him the next day over the hills, and lay in ambush in the woods near William Sutherland's house, until they observed him come out to his garden, when Robert Gun shot him with an arrow from his bow. They went immediately into his house, took his wife out of bed, and carried her and her infant child in a large basket they had prepared for that purpose to Braemore, where Gun resided. As soon as the mother recovered, she was reconciled to Robert Gun, notwithstanding of his murdering her husband. She begged of him to call her infant son William after his deceased father, though she knew, had her husband been alive, he would have named him Hector after his own father, Hector More. Robert Gun held the lands of Braemore from the Earl of Caithness in tack, but he would pay no rent to his Lordship. After being much in arrear to the Earl, his Lordship sent John Sinclair of Stercock, with a party of men under arms, to compel Gun to make payment; but Gun convened his clan, and they defeated John Sinclair with his party. Several were killed, and John Sinclair was wounded in the engagement. Young William's another lived the remainder of her life with Robert Gun, and had two sons by him. After these sons had arrived at maturity, young William and they one day went ahunting; and William being more successful than the other two, killed a roe, which he desired his two brothers to carry home. They objected to this drudgery, and said that he might carry home his own prey himself. But William, who by this time had heard of his father's tragical end, told them, with a menacing aspect, that if they would not carry home the roe he would revenge some of their father's actions upon them; which intimidated them