John Pickin

Articles by this author

John Pickin

Bog Bodies from Dumfries and Galloway

Quaternary geology, Archaeology (General), Prehistory (General), Iron Age, Bronze Age, Roman and Romano British, Recent, Recent (Social), Antiquarian

TDGNHAS Series III, 78 (2004), 31(4.91 MB)

Abstract

A recent review of the evidence for bog bodies in Scotland has added 14 previously unrecogbised examples to the existing gazeteer. Seven of these 'new discoveries' - actually old finds hidden in local newspaper accounts and antiquarian reports - are fro G

John Pickin

A Concealed Sock from Kirkmaiden, Wigtownshire

Recent, Recent (Social), Folklore

TDGNHAS Series III, 82 (2008), 138(2.63 MB)

Abstract

A short article describing the finding of a sock in a recess close to the chimney flue at Mull Cottage, Kirkmaiden. The sock was found to be stuffed with thistles and it is suggested that it may be of 18th century date and concealed to trap spitits: it is

David F. Devereux and John Pickin

Tongland Fish House and the Tongland Salmon Fishery

Post-mediaeval archaeology, Recent, Fisheries

TDGNHAS Series III, 89 (2015), 35(4.65 MB)

Abstract

A Building Record of the Fish House at Tongland was made by the authors in November 2013, prior to the re-development of the building. This revealed the nature of the midnineteenth century structure and reflected its use in relation to the seasonal salmon fishery at the nearby Doachs of Tongland on the River Dee. There is also anecdotal evidence for its operation, which included the dispatch of salmon to distant markets. The fishery closed in the 1930s with the development of the Galloway Hydro-Electric Scheme, but a range of documentary evidence indicates that this was a valuable (and sometimes controversial) fishery, operated as an economic unit from 1642 and probably much earlier. Quite possibly the canons of nearby Tongland Abbey exploited this natural resource from the early thirteenth century, although there is no surviving physical or documentary evidence for this.