Who Were the Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers Who Occupied Scotland’s Mountains?
Only a small number of prehistoric hunter-gatherer sites in the Scottish mountains have been excavated so far, but they show us the diversity of ways that these people lived in these landscapes over 6,000 years ago.
When were Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in the Scottish Mountains?
Hunter-gatherers were using mountain landscapes in Scotland from at least 9,500 years ago, although this may extend to 10,000 years ago (8,000 BC). This is shortly after humans resettled Scotland at the end of the last Ice Age, in the Mesolithic period.
They continued to use mountain sites throughout the Mesolithic period, until the arrival of the first farming communities and technologies from what is now mainland Europe around 6,000 years ago (4,000 BC).
Where are these Hunter-Gatherer Sites?
Mountain hunter-gatherer sites have been found in the glens, not on the high tops. The highest site is at around 620m above sea level on Ben Lawers in the Highlands.
Some sites are located on elevated, well drained areas and some by waterfalls or river junctions. But for others, it’s hard to figure out why a particular location was chosen. We’re yet to find any cave or rock shelter sites in mountain landscapes in Scotland, unlike elsewhere in Europe.
Sites are often found on good access routes, like the Edramucky Burn moraine bank on Ben Lawers, but this may be because many of the artefacts were first spotted in eroded footpaths.
The large Chest of Dee site in Aberdeenshire was used over thousands of years, although not continuously (Image Credit: Graeme Warren)
What Evidence Do We Find for Hunter-Gatherer Sites in the Scottish Mountains?
Most sites are dominated by stone tools made using flint. Flint isn’t available in mountains in Scotland and would have been sourced from the coasts. This means that it was used very carefully, and the artefacts made from it can be very small!
But other raw materials which do appear naturally in the mountains were also used, such as chert or quartz. We’re even aware of prehistoric quarries.
As well as stone tools, we commonly find plant remains from the mountains, including the burnt remains of woods used as fuel for fires and burnt seeds or other remains of plants which they’d used in cooking or for other purposes.
Sometimes we can also identify the outline of tents, pits where material was deposited, and fireplaces.
Examining an artefact at Sgòr an Eòin at the National Trust for Scotland’s Mar Lodge Estate in the Cairngorms (Image Copyright: Shahbaz Majeed 2023)
What were Hunter-Gatherers doing in the Scottish Mountains?
Based on existing evidence, we assume that hunter-gatherer activity in the mountains was seasonal, and that none of the sites were used all year.
There’s also variation in how often people came to locations and how they were used. Some sites were used over many hundreds of years (like the Chest of Dee in Aberdeenshire), while others were only used for a night or two (like the nearby Sgòr an Eòin site in Glen Dee). Some sites were used over the long term, abandoned for many years, and then resettled.
Some sites have very specialist stone tool assemblages, which suggests that a limited variety of tasks were carried out – perhaps indicating a short visit. Other assemblages are much more mixed, seemingly suggesting a wider range of tasks and perhaps longer occupation.
It’s difficult to know why people settled the mountains. Presumably there were resources here that were of interest – from seasonally available berries, through large and small game and fish. But we know little in detail about this. In some places, raw materials for stone tools or other craft projects may have been important. As noted above, many sites are on good access routes, and it may be that people were simply ‘passing through’ the hills.
As we excavate more mountain hunter-gatherer sites, our stories about how humans used the Scottish landscape over 6,000 years ago will become richer.
Excavation at Sgòr an Eòin at the National Trust for Scotland’s Mar Lodge Estate in the Cairngorms (Image Copyright: Shahbaz Majeed 2023)
Want to keep reading? Find out how you can help find sites like these in the Scottish mountains, what happens when they’re identified, and discover more about lithic sites found across Scotland.
By Professor Graeme Warren FSAScot, an expert on the archaeology of hunter-gatherers and keen mountain runner. He is currently directing a project exploring the early human use of the Cairngorms and can be followed on X (Twitter) or contacted over email.
Header Image Copyright: Shahbaz Majeed 2023
