EHG4887 - Excavation - Easter and Wester Rarichie

Easter and Wester Rarichie are located on two rocky knolls approximately 180m apart at the base of the north-eastern slopes of the Hill of Nigg on the east coast of the Tarbat Peninsula. The hill of Easter Rarichie is a multivallate hill fort crowned by a dry-stone roundhouse at its summit. Wester Rarichie hill has a turf walled roundhouse and a series of slight gullies and banks located on its summit plateau. Both are prominent hills in the landscae and command clear views across the Tarbat peninsula and the Dornoch and Moray firths. Two phases of archaeological excavations and further geophysical surveys were undertaken in April and July 2013. Four trenches were excavated on Easter Rarichie, targeting the roundhouse, the rampart walls encircling it and a flat terrace area on the lower slopes. On Wester Rarichie a single trench was excavated through the summit roundhouse. <1>