Old Photograph Roman Silver Traprain Law Scotland

Old photograph of Roman Silver from Traprain Law located four miles East of Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. Traprain Law is a hill with a site of an oppidum or hill fort. The hill was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC, and showed evidence of occupation and signs of ramparts after 1000 BC. The ramparts were rebuilt and re-aligned many times in the following centuries. Excavations have shown it was occupied in the Late Iron Age from about AD 40 through the last quarter of the 2nd century, about the time that the Antonine Wall was manned. Following the Roman withdrawal to the line of Hadrian's Wall it was occupied from about 220 almost uninterruptedly until about 400 when an impressive new rampart was built, then within a few decades the site was abandoned. In the 1st century the Romans recorded the Votadini as a British tribe in the area, and Traprain Law is generally thought to have been one of their major settlements; named Curia by Ptolomy. They emerged as a kingdom under the Brythonic version of their name Gododdin and Traprain Law is thought to have been their capital before moving to Din Eidyn, site of Edinburgh Castle.



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Old Photograph Viking Longhouse Jarlshof Shetland Islands Scotland

Old photograph of a Viking Longhouse at Jarlshof the best known prehistoric archaeological site on mainland Shetland Islands, Scotland. The Bronze Age settlers left evidence of several small oval houses with thick stone walls and various artefacts including a decorated bone object. The Iron Age ruins include several different types of structure including a broch and a defensive wall around the site. The Pictish period provides various works of art including a painted pebble and a symbol stone. The Viking-age ruins make up the largest such site visible anywhere in Britain and include a longhouse; excavations provided numerous tools and a detailed insight into life in Shetland at this time. The most visible structures on the site are the walls of the Scottish period fortified manor house, which inspired the name Jarlshof that first appears in an 1821 novel by Walter Scott.


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Old Photograph Broch of Clickimin Shetland Islands Scotland

Old photograph of Broch of Clickimin located one mile South West of Lerwick on the Shetland Islands, Scotland. The word broch is derived from Lowland Scots brough, meaning, among other things, fort. A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists.



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Old Photograph Berriedale Braes Scotland

Old photograph of a car on the Berriedale Braes road in Caithness, Scotland. Just south of the village of Berriedale, on the way to the north, the A9 road passes the Berriedale Braes, a steep drop in the landscape, Brae is a Scots word for hillside.



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Old Photograph Road To Kilmelford Scotland

Old photograph of a vintage car on the road to Kilmelford near Oban, Scotland.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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