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Sand Main Rockshelter

Sand, Applecross, Ross & Cromarty.

Wide ledge below rock shelf, easily visible from the road.

NG 6837 4936 Sand 2 Rock shelter containing visible midden.

Alternative Names: Sand 1, Sand 2

Notes: Adjacent car-park has tourist information signs.

NG 6841 4934 Sand 1 is a rock shelter with a shallow but wide overhang above what appears to be a late glacial coastline. Eleven test trenches were opened during August 1999. Most trenches yielded some material but trench 9 was the only one to produce significant anthropogenic material, including a substantial midden and artefacts including microliths and fragments of bone and antler. There appear to be no deposits surviving within the shallow rock shelter, however the terrace in front has a discrete midden deposit containing well-preserved organic remains. In addition there appears to be evidence for activity around the midden in the form of a lithic scatter and fire-shattered rocks. Seven bone tools and 450 lithics, including eight narrow blade microliths were found, as well as one barbed-and-tanged point from the surface.

B Finlayson, K Hardy and C Wickham-Jones 1999.

NG 6841 4934 A major excavation was carried out at the Mesolithic shell midden site of Sand. The midden lies just outside a shallow rockshelter 500m from the present sea level, at a height of 27.7m. No evidence survives to indicate prehistoric use of the rockshelter but two L-shaped trenches, Trench A (20 x 2m) and Trench B (25 x 2m) were opened downslope to excavate 90m² across the midden and the area immediately surrounding it. Preliminary results suggest that the midden (90% limpet) may have accumulated over a very short time, possibly a few seasons. The midden contained both Obanian-type bone artefacts and narrow blade microliths in direct association, thus suggesting that these artefact types are not mutually exclusive. The relatively small number of fish bones suggests that shellfish were used for food, and not simply for bait. There were large numbers of stone pot boilers, apparently an indication of the processing of shellfish, and it is likely that the bevel-ended bone tools were also involved. While shellfish remain dominant, the presence of charred hazelnuts, animal bone and fish bone indicate the use of a wide range of other resources. The presence of inedible dog whelk, harvested during the Neolithic for the extraction of purple dye, is indicative of the importance of some form of colour or art. Beneath the midden lay a non-midden layer containing a large quantity of antler and animal bone. Non-midden deposits were also present to either side of the midden. These include microliths and other stone tools.

K Hardy and C Wickham-Jones 2000.

A further radiocarbon date comes from an adult incisor found towards the top of the shell midden at Sand: 3615+65 bp. This is very similar to dates from human bone on other Mesolithic shell midden sites and adds weight to suggestions of a pattern of later activity in the vicinity of the middens. A child's molar was also found in the shell midden, but is too small to be dated.

K Hardy and C R Wickham-Jones 2002.

NG 6841 4934 Geophysical survey (magnetometry) was conducted over a partially excavated shell midden (DES 2000, 45) as part of the Scottish Mesolithic Geophysical Survey Project, with inconclusive results.

N Finlay 2004