Iron Age

Perhaps because of the stress put upon communities and families as the climate worsened there seems to have a growing tendency to build more massive roundhouses and in the Iron Age from about 500BC this resulted in a remarkable concentration of monumental houses on promontories and both natural and man-made islands, each associated with a substantial area of good land. 

Assynt has about 10 such structures, most of them on the coast and close to a good landing beach. On top of the split rock at Clachtoll are the remains of a wall made of stones fused together under intense heat, a process known as vitrification and close by is Assynt’s largest and most imposing iron Age site, Clachtoll Broch.

There are also a number of Crannogs (large round houses on artificial islands) on inland lochs suggesting that the coastal distribution of so many Iron Age sites may give a misleading impression of an overall settlement in Assynt at this time.