Bulletin
3, 1997
Regional Context
Preliminary notice of investigations at Hilton of Cadboll.
By Martin Carver, based on research by Justin Garner-Lahire and Graham Robins
At the invitation of Jane Durham, I undertook some research on the nature of the sister site to Portmahomack at Hilton of Cadboll, which lies on the east coast of the Tarbat peninsula a few miles to the south. Very sadly Jane Durham was killed in a car-accident early in 1997, and it has been decided to set up a memorial to her at the site of the chapel at Hilton of Cadboll itself (see next page).
Research at Hilton has continued through the good offices and support of the Morangie Estate, Tain and Easter Ross Civic Trust and Highland Council. The objectives are to try to understand the settlement and community which was responsible for the erection of the famous Hilton of Cadboll stone, which is contemporary with the great monument erected at the same at Portmahomack (TR20) and shares many of its motifs with Tarbat carvings. It has often been remarked that the great stone monuments erected at Nigg and Shandwick, represent together with those at Hilton and Tarbat a veritable "golden age" of artistic production, and that these places must have be comparable or even associated with each other (Fig 1; Carver, forthcoming).
Topographical and geophysical surveys were carried out in 1997 on the site of St Mary's Chapel which lies by the sea shore in modern Hilton of Cadboll. Documentary research suggests that the traces of a settlement found there belong to the medieval village of "Catboll-Fisher" a fishing village owned by Fearn Abbey in the 15th century. As the name implies, the "Hilton" of Cadboll was presumably sited on the higher ground. The famous monument stood by the chapel of St Mary in 1780, but it had been taken down to refashion as a recumbent grave slab in 1676. The position in which it stood before this, and in the 9th century when it was new, are not yet known. Future investigation (mainly survey work) is intended to encompass the area which lies between the 35m contour and the sea (Carver 1998).
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