Ackergill is a settlement in the

Wick Wick most often refers to: * Capillary action ("wicking") ** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp ** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts Wick or WICK may also refer to: Places and placename ...

Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...

, in the

Highland Council area Highland ( gd, A' Ghàidhealtachd, ; sco, Hieland) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It share ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

History

In Ackergill is a famous tower/castle named

Ackergill Tower Ackergill Tower (or Ackergill Castle) is located on the coast of Sinclair's Bay, about 4 km north of Wick, Caithness, in northern Scotland. It was built in the early 16th century, and is a category A listed building. The building is a five ...

. In the 1920s, archaeologists excavated an ancient cemetery in an elongated sand mound at Ackergill, finding ten graves with sixteen burials. Most inhumations were in long

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East ...

s. Grave goods were found in only one of the burials. A

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

symbol stone depicting the lower part of a fish together with a rectangular symbol bore the

Ogham Ogham (Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langua ...

inscription “NEHTERI,” meaning “Neht, son of Etrios.” It is believed the burial ground may have been important through the first and second centuries.

Economy

Despite being a small village, Ackergill used to have a

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

station, which served the increasing volume of shipping that began to pass through the area with the rise of the

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

industry at nearby

from the mid-19th century; in poor weather, vessels often sought shelter in Sinclair's Bay. The lifeboat station is no longer used.Overview of the lifeboat
/ref>

References

{{Reflist Populated places in Caithness