Clean Pool

NJ 517 425 Forestry Commission mounding operations revealed slight traces of possible remains that were not previously visible. Members of Strathbogie Archaeological Group carried out a 'scrape and record' survey and were helped by members of OFARS who conducted a resistivity survey of the area. This survey was undertaken between May and September 2007. The overburden of brash and the topmost layer of turf were removed from an area of 364m2. At this layer stone concentrations were encountered and planned. They were left in situ and recovered.

The aim was to try to determine the type and date of the remains and to aid the Forestry Commission in planning their management strategy for the area. The method employed was chosen in an attempt to gain those answers whilst avoiding causing damage to sealed archaeological layers.

One cairn was encountered and drawn and a further one located but not stripped. Further concentrations of stone to the S of the cairn suggest possible settlement activity, though this would require confirmation. The only finds to come out of the turf layer were a barbed and tanged arrowhead, a thumbnail scraper and two small fragments of possibly Bronze Age pottery.

The site is important for, amongst other things, demonstrating how an area of mature woodland can completely mask all trace of quite substantial underlying archaeology and preserve them in relatively good condition.

Archive deposited with Aberdeenshire Forestry Commission, Aberdeenshire SMR and at www.scottish-heritage.org.uk.

Colin Shepherd, 2007.

NJ 517 425 Forestry Commission mounding operations revealed slight traces of possible remains that were not previously visible. Members of Strathbogie Archaeological Group carried out a 'scrape and record' survey and were helped by members of OFARS who conducted a resistivity survey of the area. This survey was undertaken between May and September 2007. The overburden of brash and the topmost layer of turf were removed from an area of 364m2. At this layer stone concentrations were encountered and planned. They were left in situ and recovered.

The aim was to try to determine the type and date of the remains and to aid the Forestry Commission in planning their management strategy for the area. The method employed was chosen in an attempt to gain those answers whilst avoiding causing damage to sealed archaeological layers.

One cairn was encountered and drawn and a further one located but not stripped. Further concentrations of stone to the S of the cairn suggest possible settlement activity, though this would require confirmation. The only finds to come out of the turf layer were a barbed and tanged arrowhead, a thumbnail scraper and two small fragments of possibly Bronze Age pottery.

The site is important for, amongst other things, demonstrating how an area of mature woodland can completely mask all trace of quite substantial underlying archaeology and preserve them in relatively good condition.

Archive deposited with Aberdeenshire Forestry Commission, Aberdeenshire SMR and at www.scottish-heritage.org.uk.

Colin Shepherd, 2007.

NJ 517 425 Earlier topsoil stripping and recording prompted by forestry activity demonstrated that this area contained early features, including at least one cairn (see DES, 2007, 8, 24). In order to try to determine its nature, ie. whether or not it was a simple clearance cairn, further investigations were carried out May–September 2008.

Excavation has now shown that its use as a cairn formed only the final part of a much longer story. Stone concentrations from a pre-cairn horizon seem to have formed the eastern side of a sub-circular, enclosed area underlying the later cairn. This area was defined on the W by a low bank of soil/ turf. A small, well-tended fire had been set on the N end of this bank. The enclosure was filled with a thick deposit of bright orange-yellow sand containing charcoal and there may have been an entrance on the E side. A further layer of orange-yellow sand was added, sealing a small area of ‘articulated’ stonework.

A subsequent phase saw a further internal, circular enclosure formed by a dense concentration of stones forming an eastern arc and a western arc formed by five (or possibly six) small ‘orthostats’. The layer of stones which subsequently was used as the ‘kerb’ of the cairn appears to have been put in place at this time and the E entrance blocked. This phase possibly included the siting of a further small standing ‘orthostat’. In the centre was a deposit which survived as a burnt concentration on top of a small, surviving piece of wood.

All elements had been set on a small, flat stone. It seems that the monument was then abandoned for some time.

After this period of abandonment the enclosure was infilled with a mixture of dumped stones and mixed soils to form the body of the cairn. This was then capped with a very neat layer of small cobbles. A large boulder as set in the centre of the mound, within but sitting proud of the cobbles. A subsequent deposition is suggested by an earth-filled cavity beneath an area of patching in the cobbled surface just SW of the centre of the cairn. A patch of fire-reddened compacted soil was recorded from this context.

Further surveying and planning of the surrounding area

suggests that a wider area (covering over 4000m2) had been extensively used, though the nature of that use remains unclear. The lack of domestic (or any) debris relating to the excavated features suggests that the area was kept intentionally clean. The existence of up to three large cairns on a small rise c200m to the S and overlooking the site prompts the consideration that the apparent non-domestic nature of the excavated area might be related to nearby funerary monuments. However, there is at present no evidence that these sites were contemporary or associated.

This work is ongoing and this is an interim report. Thanks must go to the Aberdeenshire Conservancy of the Forestry Commission for access, to Moira Greig for sound advice and to the members of the Strathbogie Archaeological Group for their hard work and tenacity.

Archive: Aberdeenshire Forestry Commission and SMR Aberdeenshire

Colin Shepherd, 2008

NJ 5140 4222 – NJ 5161 4212 – NJ 5171 4215 – NJ 5169 4221 – NJ 5141 4228 Clean Hill An area of clearance cairns stretches along the S side of the hill from the almost deserted settlement of Clune (DES 2007, 23). It might be part of activity associated with the Clean Pool Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age site (DES 2008, 22 and DES 2007, 24). The following surface finds were recovered:

• a piece of decorated ?Beaker. Well-fired, thin, reddish-buff exterior with grey core. Gritty inclusions of up to c3mm. Decorated with quite deep vertical rouletting which meet a group of three less well defined horizontal bands of ?rouletting

• a flint flake. Pale cream to brown at bulb of compression. Patinated

• a fine flake of patinated brownish dark grey flint

• a secondary flake of coarse light brown flint with pale inclusions. Half corticated

• a five-sided small chunk of patinated dark reddish, brown flint. Possibly burnt?

Archive: Aberdeenshire Council SMR and Forestry Commission, Aberdeenshire

Funder: Moray and Aberdeenshire Forestry Commission

Colin Shepherd, 2011