Bulletin
3, 1997
Jane Durham
Jane Durham was a Commissioner of the Royal Commission of Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and an expert on the art and archaeology of the Highlands. She was a warm supporter of the Tarbat Discovery Programme and the work at Portmahomack, as well as being the initiator of the quite separate project at Hilton of Cadboll.
Her links with the Tarbat peninsula are themselves ancient since her family once owned the Cadboll Estate, and she was a tireless promoter of research and interest in the Hilton area. Failing the retrieval of the Hilton of Cadboll stone from the National Museum, never an easy prospect, she advocated the creation of a replica stone, and in the months before her tragic death had briefed me on what would be acceptable and suggested where to put it - at the west end of the chapel where it had stood in the 18th century. Estimates had been obtained and it was just necessary to reconnoitre the proposed site for the replica at St Mary's Chapel, an operation which would include a preliminary assessment of the site as a whole.
After her death, the project continued through the good offices of Tain and Easter Ross and in particular through her brother, Councillor Jim Patterson. It was proposed that the obverse of the replica (the original of which carried the memorial to Alexander Duff and his three wives) should feature a potted history of the stone and its wanderings (so far as they are yet known), and a memorial to Jane Durham herself, daughter of Cadboll, and friend and inspiration to those who seek to know its long history.
Martin Carver
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Last updated 10 October, 2003.
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