Excavation

Date 1959

Event ID 1008585

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1008585

This homestead is situated immediately NW of the summit of Glenachan Rig. It was excavated by the Commission in 1959.

The homestead measures 108' by 84' within a palisade now represented by a trench which was found to be 2' deep. A short sector of the palisade on the W side of the enclosure had been replaced, probably after the original had perished. The entrance, on the E, consisted of a gap 9' wide, on either side of which the terminals of the palisade turned inwards. The ground immediately inside the entrance was deeply hollowed by traffic, a fact which, when taken in conjunction with the evidence of the reconstruction of the palisade, indicates that the occupation of the homested was note purely transitory.

The interior contained two timber houses, traces of which can still be seen on the surface of the ground in the form of shallow penannular ditches measuring 28' in internal diameter. Excavation of the northernmost house showed that, inside the ditch and concentric with it there was a ring of 10 post holes; there was also a central post-hole, with another close beside it. The entrance was on the NW, the gap in the ditch being matched by a gap 8' wide between two of the post-holes. An elongated fire-pit lay SE of the centre of the floor, and four other post-holes occurred in the SW quadrant.

A third house, similar in surface appearance to the others, lies 40 yds N of the homestead.

The finds from the excavation - a flint flake and two pebbles, their ends worn into facets by grinding, were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in 1962.

RCAHMS 1967, visited 1959; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1965 (Donations).