FOR 10 years archeologists excavated the site of an ancient Highland monastery - but it took workers digging trenches for new water pipes to uncover the missing link in the church's history.
FOR 10 years archeologists excavated the site of an ancient Highland monastery - but it took workers digging trenches for new water pipes to uncover the missing link in the church's history.
The carved sandstone unearthed by the workers is thought to date from the 14th or 15th century and was probably used to shore up a centuries-old drain.
The original monastery was built in the eighth century by the Picts near Portmahomack on the Easter Ross peninsula but it was burned down a century later.
Since then, six churches have stood upon the site, but the stone just discovered will help complete the picture, taking the site's history up to the 18th-century church, now the Tarbat Discovery Centre.
Archaeologist Cait McCullagh, of Highland Archaeology Services Ltd, said the stone "gives a compelling insight into the possible size and complexity of what may have been a very impressive structure".
