Rosemarkie man

As part of the Cromarty Crime and Thrillers weekend a talk about the Rosemarkie Man : Murder in the caves was held in The Stables. We were in our seats just after 9.35am and gradually the hall filled to over 50 people.
A fascinating talk by local archaeologist Simon Gunn and Mary Peteranna of the Rosemarkie Caves project.
You may remember that I blipped about the brutal murder of this poor individual who was uncovered in a dig during  2016 in one of the caves along the coast near Rosemarkie. The carbon dating carried out one of his bones dates him from c.430-630 AD, the time of the Picts. It's still early days so even though alot has been worked out already DNA tests are still waiting to be revealed and more exciting research to be carried out. Another dig in caves close by will take place this Summer.
https://nosasblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/19/introducing-rosemarkie-man-a-pictish-period-cave-burial-on-the-black-isle/
As an extra treat we were given a performance by Lauren MacColl, an award winning fiddle player, born in Fortrose and also part of the Fiddle quartet RANT and Ewan Macpherson on guitar. Lauren had been writing  a new song about the Brahan Seer who also had a horrible death and she became inspired by thinking about the Rosemarkie Man, where he came from,who he was, what language he spoke etc. and produced a haunting tune with a fiddle tuned to the Devils tuning used alot in the 18th Century in Scotland.
We then had lunch in The Pantry , who had run out of scones at 12.30 !
A look at the amazing work that's been done at Kirk Michael, what a difference from a year ago. The building was nt open as there are some finishing touches to do, including finishing the electrics but we were impressed by what we saw.