PROBABLE IRON AGE SETTLEMENT FOUND!
The clear-up of a Highland rock festival has led to Roman and Scots medieval coins being discovered.
Eric Soane, a metal detector locating left-behind tent pegs after the 2012 Belladrum Festival (2013 dates 2nd & 3rd August; Beauly, Inverness-shire), chanced on some coins which were sent to the Museum of Scotland for identification and assessment for treasure trove. The rest were dug up during a subsequent National Museum of Scotland dig at the site led by Dr Fraser Hunter in October last year.
On 16th July, the hoard goes on permanent display in the Archaeology Gallery of Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. The 36 Roman coins comprise 36 denarii, the latest coins of mid-second century date, and mark the first Roman coin hoard to have been discovered in the Beauly Firth area.
“Left-behind tent pegs can be dangerous to stock and can damage machinery. We like to get rid of as many as possible. But it was an unexpected bonus to find the coins,” said festival promoter Joe Gibbs.
A suspected iron age settlement also appeared during the dig, which took place in the general camping area. ““Heavy Metal isn’t generally a genre we go in for at Belladrum, but perhaps we should revise that as clearly there is a precedent, albeit 2000 years ago,” said Mr Gibbs
Any funds received from the treasure trove are being donated back to the National Museum of Scotland to facilitate further digs on the site. Archaeologists from University of Highlands & Islands, a sponsor of the event, will be talking about the finds.
Cait McCullagh, the Inverness Museum’s assistant curator and archaeologist, is hosting a presentation at the museum on Thursday July 18 from 6pm to 7.30pm to explain the importance of the hoard.
A spokesman for High Life Highland, which runs the museum, said: “Cait will present on the significance of the coin hoard for our local Iron Age story, proposing how the Belladrum Hoard along with a growing body of evidence for interaction between Highland tribes and the Empire, gives us an insight into prehistoric politics and Iron Age-elites’ likings for exotic bling!
“As the Highlands makes ready for the 10th anniversary of the Tartan Heart Festival at Belladrum, this could be the perfect ‘fringe’ event for all those who are interested in learning how the Beauly Firth has been at the heart of Highland culture for at least 2000 years.”
The UK’s northern-most major festival, and Scotland’s main family festival, Bella, as it is known to its fans, has sold out its 15,800 capacity in advance in record time, over six weeks before the event.
Manchester indie legends James and Glasgow rock prodigies Twin Atlantic have been booked to headline along with an exciting and wide-ranging list of other acts including:The Straits – former members of Dire Straits; the British band Noisettes; bluesmanSeasick Steve; stellar garage rockers The Horrors and Bella favourites Alabama 3;King Charles and Scots indie artists Admiral Fallow; Rumours of Fleetwood Mac,indie favourites Pi`geon detectives, We Are The Ocean, Baby Strange, Frank Hamilton and Celtic rockers Peatbog Faeries who played the first Belladrum Festival way back in 2004; acoustic-folk-hip hop artist Lucy Spraggan and emerging soul artistJacob Banks, fresh from touring with Emile Sande; singer-songwriter Andy Burrows, former member of Razorlight ; Scots folk stars Dougie MacLean and Julie Fowlis with folk legend Martin Carthy and singer songwriter ex-Arab Strap Malcolm Middleton;Gavin James, an impressive young singer-songwriter from Ireland and Rick Redbeardof the Phantom Band; pagan pop-folk all-girl trio Stealing Sheep and gentle Geordie jazzy swingy country troupe Shipcote and Friends; It’s A Beautiful Day, created during San Francisco’s 1967 ‘Summer of Love;’ folk rockers Treetop Flyers who won Glastonbury’s 2011 emerging talent competition; C&W exponents My Darling Clementine and bluegrass Southern Tenant Folk Union; Scotland’s much loved Celtic rockers, The Dangleberries; Jericho Hill – three ex-punks and a cowboy playingJohnny Cash; Victorian Trout Conspiracy, great ska from Edinburgh; Scots indie bands Meursault, Washington Irving, PAWS, Withered Hand, The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, Anderson McGinty Webster Ward & Fisher, Shutter, Vasquez, Wooden Box, the Oxides, Ashley & The Cosmonauts, Be Like Pablo and The Lafontaines ; emerging singer-songwriters Tich and Nick Mulvey; Scotland’s most tipped unsigned band, Fatherson; local heroes Scooty and the Skyhooks, Brown Bear and the Bandits from Largs. Skerryvore, Coca Tenorio, FaR, Taghta, Feis Rois, Rhythm and Reel, Mind Funk, Hoodja, Caledonian Ceilidh Trail and Toby Michaels Rolling Damned from the Highlands
The 2013 theme is ‘Carnival’, in keeping with the birthday party atmosphere the milestone event is bound to create. A video of the 2012 event created by Tom Welsh from Deluxe.com, Edinburgh, can be seen on the event’s web site.
Belladrum 2013 takes place in the beautiful Highland surroundings of Belladrum Estate, near Beauly in Inverness-shire. The independent festival has built a reputation for its eclectic line-ups, its offbeat non-musical entertainments and its all-ages approach. The festival won a VisitScotland Thistle Award in 2009 and is a past winner of the Grassroots Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards, the festival industry’s ‘oscars’.
