The BBQ season

Summer must be near as the the smoke from a nearby barbecue wafted across the garden at the weekend.

These are a few remains, the shells of mussels (moules) and bits of charcoal, from a barbecue that the neighbours enjoyed some time ago. Well, quite some considerable time ago! The charcoal has been radi0-carbon dated to 350 to 900 AD. Around that time families of Picts gathered together huge quantities of mussels from the estuary which they then boiled and feasted upon. The enormous middens of shells on the shore of the estuary stand testament to their liking for moules. Sadly it was a bit early in history for tatties and so our ancestors were denied the joy of eating their moules with frites.