Inchnadamph is a hamlet in

Assynt Assynt ( gd, Asainn or ) is a sparsely populated area in the south-west of Sutherland, lying north of Ullapool on the west coast of Scotland. Assynt is known for its landscape and its remarkable mountains, which have led to the area, along with ...

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

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 ...

. The name is an anglicisation of the

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

name Innis nan Damh meaning 'meadow of the stags'. Assynt is a remote area with a low population density. Inchnadamph contains a few houses, a lodge, a hotel and a historic old church, graveyard and mausoleum.

History

Bone Caves

The 'Bone Caves' of Inchnadamph contain relics of

Eurasian lynx The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is a medium-sized wild cat widely distributed from Northern, Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia and Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. It inhabits temperate and boreal forests up to an eleva ...

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in co ...

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

(dated to 47,000 BCE), the only evidence of

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

s so far found in Scotland, and human skeletons dated to the 3rd millennium BCE. Murray, W.H. (1977) ''The Companion Guide to the West Highlands of Scotland.'' London. Collins. Murray states the skeletons were dated to 6000 BC. The skeleton of a bear thought to be 11,000 years old or more was removed from the caves in 2008. The bones were found by

cavers Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is ...

in 1995, deep in the ''

Uamh an Claonaite Uamh an Claonaite (Scottish Gaelic: Cave of the sloping rock) is the longest cave in Scotland. It consists of a series of dry passages and a series of at least six sumps which have been dived over the years. The attempt by members of the Gram ...

'' system and have been examined by the

National Museums Scotland National Museums Scotland (NMS; gd, Taighean-tasgaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. It runs the national museums of Scotland. NMS is one of the country's National Collections ...

to determine the age and species. It is presumed the animal died while hibernating, and that its body was later washed further into the underground network.

Ardvreck Castle

The ruins of

Ardvreck Castle Ardvreck Castle is a castle, now ruinous, standing on a rocky promontory in Loch Assynt, Sutherland, Scotland, UK. The structure dates from about 1490 and is associated with the then landowners, the Macleods of Assynt. History of Ardvreck The ...

lie nearby on the shores of

Loch Assynt Loch Assynt ( gd, Loch Asaint) is a freshwater loch in Sutherland, Scotland, east-north east of Lochinver. Situated in a spectacular setting between the heights of Canisp, Quinag and Beinn Uidhe, it receives the outflow from Lochs Awe, Maol a ...

. The castle was badly damaged in a thunderstorm in 1795. The Old Parish Church of Assynt is located in the village and pieces of an old Celtic cross have been found, dating from the 8th to the 11th century.

Old Parish Church

Assynt Church Inchnadamph Scotland Jul14 DSC 5263

The Old Parish Church of Assynt (Church of Scotland, Listed Building LB44967), is one of the tourist sites of Inchnadamph. Local lore ascribes the origin of the church to Angus Macleod, laird of Assynt between 1436–1443. The first official notice was in 1455. Only the burial vault of the Macleods remains of the old structure, in the graveyard to the SE of the present church. The present church was built in 1741–1743 and was renovated in 1900 by William C. Joass. It is not used for worship now. The 5-bay rectangular building measures 15m x 6m and is aligned E-W. At the east end is a spire on a square base with a cross finial. The roof is graded slate with a stone ridge, the rubble walls are pebble-dashed and whitewashed. The church and graveyard occupy an area of about 32m x 26m, protected by stone boundary walls. The interior was refurbished in 1900. The pulpit is octagonal and the pews are made of pine. The churchyard and MacLeod Vault, excluding the present church building, are a

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

scheduled monument SM8309.

Geology

The

Moine Thrust The Moine Thrust Belt or Moine Thrust Zone is a linear tectonic feature in the Scottish Highlands which runs from Loch Eriboll on the north coast south-west to the Sleat peninsula on the Isle of Skye. The thrust belt consists of a series of t ...

runs through the area, which is a mecca for geologists, who can find accommodation in the Assynt Field Centre (Inchnadamph Lodge) or at Inchnadamph Hotel. Nearby there is a monument to the work of

Ben Peach Benjamin Neeve Peach (6 September 1842 – 29 January 1926) was a British geologist. Life Peach was born at Gorran Haven in Cornwall on 6 September 1842 to Jemima Mabson and Charles William Peach, an amateur British naturalist and geologist ...

and

John Horne John Horne PRSE FRS FRSE FEGS LLD (1 January 1848 – 30 May 1928) was a Scottish geologist. He served as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1915 to 1919. Life Horne was born on 1 January 1848, in Campsie, Stirlingshire, the ...

whose work, culminating in their 1907 publication ''

The Geological Structure of the North-West Highlands of Scotland The Highlands controversy was a scientific controversy which started between British geologists in the middle of the nineteenth century concerning the nature of the stratum, rock strata in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The debate became c ...

'', was crucial in the understanding of this, the first thrust fault to be discovered anywhere in the world. The monument's inscription reads: "To Ben N Peach and John Horne who played the foremost part in unravelling the geological structure of the North West Highlands 1883–1897. An international tribute. Erected 1930". The hotel retains a copy of the guest book signed by many prominent geologists of the day who visited during the 1912

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

excursion to Assynt.Dryburgh, P.M. ''et al.'' (1995) ''Assynt: The Geologists' Mecca''. Edinburgh Geological Society.

References