An archaeological excavation was carried out by GUARD Archaeology Ltd, on behalf of Smith Scott Mullan Associates and Berwickshire Housing Association on an area proposed for development at Beanburn in Ayton, Scottish Borders in March 2019. The excavation targeted an area where several potential archaeological remains were uncovered previously during an archaeological evaluation. A total of 24 features were encountered during the excavation, along with three sherds of hand-made prehistoric pottery that date to the middle Bronze Age period.
On 20 March 1891 George Neilson of Glasgow wrote to John Collingwood Bruce of Newcastle to solicit his advice on how the sections recently excavated by the Glasgow Archaeological Society across the Antonine Wall might be recorded photographically. In his letter he also set out an interpretation of the Vallum of Hadrian's Wall as a southern facing element of the frontier works, a proposal which he later developed in his book Per Lineam Valli published later that year. The letter also provides information on the progress of the Antonine Wall excavation project. In this article, a comparison is made between Neilson and Bruce as investigators and interpreters of their respective frontiers, and between the stratigraphic recording techniques of Neilson and those of other archaeologists of the day. The excavations on the two frontiers are placed in their wider context at a time when archaeologists in western Europe as well as Britain were experimenting with the recording of turf ramparts and earthworks
Archaeological excavation of two putative hut circle sites was carried out during construction of a new 275Kv overhead line between Essich in Inverness and Glen Kyllachy near Tomatin. Both sites, Hut Circles 5a and 22a, had been previously identified during walkover surveys of the area, and were described as upstanding features in the form of circular banks under vegetation, forming elements of a wider prehistoric landscape. Upon excavation, Hut Circle 5a formed a roundhouse with a substantial stone-built enclosing wall, internal floor deposits and evidence for an internal post ring. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from interior deposits indicated that this structure dated to the Iron Age, and likely saw use between the 5th and 3rd centuries cal BC. In contrast, excavation of Hut Circle 22a uncovered a more ephemeral structure, comprising a crudely constructed penannular earth bank enclosing two postholes and a single fire-pit. The latter site dates to the Bronze Age; two radiocarbon dates obtained from Hut Circle 22a indicate that activity took place between the 16th and the 13th centuries cal BC.
A programme of archaeological works was undertaken by AOC Archaeology between March and June 2021 on land to the east of Jackton Road, East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, as part of the East Kilbride Community Growth Area. The works consisted of an evaluation, followed by a single phase of targeted excavation in the eastern part of site. This excavation revealed the remains of two phases of late prehistoric structure, consisting of an external ring ditch, a post ring and a central hearth in the first phase, and a very truncated ring ditch in the second. The results of this work is described, and considered within the context of regional prehistoric evidence.
Previous archaeological works in 2017 at Weirston Road, Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, revealed prehistoric activity ranging from the Neolithic to the Middle Iron Age. Subsequent excavation by the author has demonstrated that Iron Age settlement activity continues to the south into land associated with Corsehillhead Farm, Kilwinning. The new works revealed the continuation of a previously identified Iron Age enclosure ditch, as well as ancillary features of similar date. While lacking in artefactual remains, these works demonstrate the extensive nature of this prehistoric settlement, strengthen the dating evidence previously recorded, and add to understanding of evidence prehistoric occupation and cultivation activity at this site, and regionally.
Recent archaeological investigation at South Fort Street, Leith, Edinburgh has revealed remains of the Georgian country manor house of Hillhousefield House and associated features as well as an intriguing curvilinear ditch. The ditch is suggested as forming part of the 16th century fortifications at Leith, possibly part of the 1559-1560 siege works. A new transcription based on the Petworth map and previous work undertaken by Paton and Cook in 2016 has further refined the location of the fortifications. Representative of a period of religious and political turmoil in Scotland, the remains from Leith provide a glimpse of the developing nature of conflict, and likely, a fragment of the Mount Falcon siege works that faced the fortifications of the French.
Proposed development at Popple Burn Park, Ednam, Scottish Borders, prompted an archaeological evaluation in May 2018, which revealed several archaeological features. With the archaeological potential of the area identified, three subsequent phases of excavation between 2018 and 2021 revealed multi-period activity that ranged from the Bronze Age to the medieval period, evidenced through analysis of pottery, and a programme of radiocarbon dating. Several linear features that ran across the site likely represent the remains of former field boundaries, with the remaining features comprising pits and postholes that did not form any obvious structures. It is likely that the features encountered at Popple Burn Park are part of a wider zone of rural medieval activity centred beyond the extents of the excavated area, with sporadic elements of earlier prehistoric activity.
Archaeological works at Weirston Road, Kilwinning, revealed prehistoric activity dating from the Neolithic to the Middle Iron Age. Iron Age settlement evidence includes numerous overlapping ring-groove structures with diametrically opposed entrances, representative of a regional roundhouse variant. While the Early to Middle Iron Age activity dominates the site, the finds assemblage includes Late Neolithic pottery and Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age lithic material, demonstrating new evidence for Neolithic activity in the area.
This article is both an update to an earlier article ( Adamson 2008 ) insofar as it considered the Moat Pit coal mine but it is also a study for the first time of the wider coal mining enterprise of the Bruce family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at Culross, Fife. The article demonstrates that the previous understanding of where the landward shaft of the Moat Pit was located was incorrect. It moves that entrance westwards to a newly identified shaft on the shore known as the Waterdie pit, which is also a possible location for the Egyptian Wheel drainage mechanism. It highlights the importance of the nearby and disregarded Dunimarle Pier to the mining operation. New documentary evidence has led to a re-calculation of the Moat Pit coal mine output which increases this very substantially. An analysis of the other operational coal shafts in Culross in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries point to the Moat Pit having had both an earlier prototype and also a potential successor. These had linked onshore shafts to moated structures located between low and high tides, exactly as with the Moat Pit. There is evidence of the very extensive coal mining operations carried on by the sons and grandsons of Sir George Bruce which has been previously little understood. The mining innovation of the Bruce family is considered and found to be impressive.
The watching brief and excavation of a house plot in the north of Tiree revealed evidence, although limited in extent, of a wooden structure, defined by postholes and its possible floor deposit. A small number of hearths together with larger pits including a stone-lined one were also excavated. The environmental samples which included evidence of wild food resources, barley, charcoal from fuel as well as burnt peat, suggested there were two phases of activity at the site – later Neolithic and into the Bronze Age. The typo-technological attributes of the flint artefacts also suggested activity in the later Neolithic/early Bronze Age period, and the few sherds of pottery that survived also indicated use of the site, possibly as early as the middle Neolithic and into the later Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The two radiocarbon dates that were returned from later features suggested a Mesolithic time-frame, indicating the danger of reliance on hazel nutshell for dating purposes.
Evaluation and excavation works in advance of housing development at two sites on Ravelrig Road and Newmills Road, Balerno, City of Edinburgh, revealed significant archaeological features evidencing multi-phase settlement. At Ravelrig Road, two groups of pits were dated to the Early and Middle to Late Neolithic periods with a cluster of Copper Age and Early Bronze Age features that included two possible storage features. At Newmills Road, alongside limited evidence for late prehistoric occupation in the form of pits dating to the last centuries BC and the first centuries AD, the most significant remains were of early medieval date, including a ring-groove representing a putative roundhouse and other features, including a hearth and linear boundary features, generally placed between the 7 th and 9 th centuries AD according to radiocarbon dating.
In June 2019, a charcoal-rich pit was identified in an eroding riverbank during a walk-over survey along the River Dee, in the Mar Lodge Estate, Cairngorm Mountains, as part of a wider Mesolithic research project in the area led by researchers from University College Dublin. Subsequent radiocarbon dating of pine charcoal revealed that the pit was used in the earlier first millennium AD, providing the first archaeological evidence for Iron Age activity in this area of the Cairngorm mountains. No artefacts were uncovered, but the archaeobotanical assemblage from the pit provides evidence for the nature of fuel procurement strategies in this area in the Iron Age. The results highlight the difficulty of identifying early prehistoric archaeological activity in mountain environments and the potential for the survival of further later prehistoric evidence in this area of Mar Lodge.
