Portmahomack Portmahomack (Scottish Gaelic: Port Mo Chalmaig; Haven of My [i.e. Saint] Colmóc) is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about three miles from the village at the end of the Tarbat Peninsula. Ballone Castle lies about a mile from the village. There is evidence of early settlement and the area seems to have been the site of significant activity during the time of the Picts, early Christianity and the Vikings. The village is situated on a sandy bay and has a small harbour designed by Thomas Telford. Portmahomack lies inside the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation with the associated dolphin and whale watching activity. The village has a primary school, golf course, hotel, a number of places to eat and a shop with a sub-post office. The nearest rail access is at Fearn railway station and the nearest commercial airport is at Inverness Airport. The nearest town with full services is Tain lying approximately ten miles to the west. Tain also has rail access. The hamlet of Rockfield is nearby and is accessed via the village of Portmahomack. Situated 9 miles (14 km) east of Tain on the northern coast of the Tarbat Peninsula, Portmahomack has long been known to be on the site of early settlements. The earliest evidence of habitation is provided by shell middens pointing to settlement as early as one or two thousand years BCE. There are the remains of an Iron Age broch a little to the west of the village. Finds of elaborate early Christian carved stones dating to the 8th-9th centuries (including one with an inscription), in and around the churchyard, had long suggested that Portmahomack was the site of an important early church in the sixth-seventh century. Possible Roman camp[edit] In 1822 Rev Grant, minister of Boharn, described a beautiful square fortification of about 100 paces of a side near Blàr a Chath, north of the village. It was tentatively identified as a Roman camp in 1949 by O. G. S. Crawford although he did not visit the site and no trace was found of its existence during a later visit. Monastery[edit] Tarbat Old Church Portmahomack is the site of the first confirmed Pictish monastery and the subject between 1994 and 2007 of one of the largest archaeological investigations in Scotland (see link to Tarbat Discovery Programme) directed by Martin Carver (b. 1941 ). The monastery began around 550 AD and was destroyed by fire in about 800 AD. It had a burial ground with cist and head-support burials, a stone church, at least four monumental stone crosses and workshops making church plate and early Christian books. The making of vellum in an early medieval site was detected for the first time here by Cecily Spall of FAS Ltd. Over two hundred pieces of sculpture have been found (see link to Portmahomack sculpture fragments), some of it broken up in a layer of burning suggesting that the monastic buildings were violently destroyed, possibly in a Viking raid, about the year 800. The tradition of holiness survived sufficiently strongly to allow the site to become that of the later medieval parish church of St Colmóc. from The present restored building, adapted to house a museum after lying empty for a number of years, has been shown by archaeological investigation to be itself a monument of great interest, of multi-phase construction, the oldest part (the east wall of the crypt) having been built as early as the 9th century. The museum and visitor centre in St Colmócs Church is managed by the Tarbat Historic Trust. The precise identity of Colmóc is uncertain. The name is an affectionate or hypocoristic form, and could refer either to one of the many early Irish holy men with the common name of Colmán (e.g. Colmán of Lindisfarne), or to St. Columba (Old Irish Colm Cille). Recent research on the ancient trench around the local monastery found organic samples in the date range from 140 AD to 590 AD. The area enclosed by the ditch may have been a settlement, craft-working centre and/or hub of a Pictish community Battle of Tarbat Ness[edit] The Battle of Tarbat Ness was a land battle fought (c 1030-1040) between Thorfinn the Mighty, Earl (Jarl) of Caithness and the King of Scotland. Middle Ages[edit] In the Battle of Tarbat in the 1480s, a raiding party from the Clan Mackay of Strathnaver were cornered in the Tarbat church by the Clan Ross, who killed many of them before setting fire to the church.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 23:46:10 +0000
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