Excavation

Date August 2005

Event ID 1015491

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1015491

NT 580 747 Work in August 2005 concentrated on completing excavation of the western end of the medieval building first examined in 1996-7 and further investigated following a devastating fire in 2003 (DES 2003, 62). This modifies the results from 2004 (see above). The medieval building was shown to be a single-phase construction overlying earlier floor surfaces. No contemporary finds and few structural traces were recovered, and this end of the building may have been a store, with any occupation at the E end (where pottery was recovered in previous work).

Two phases of later prehistoric levelling deposits underlay the building, filling gaps in the bedrock to provide a level surface. The lack of structural evidence suggests this was an outdoor area rather than part of a structure.

Some 50m to the WSW, fire had exposed a further terrace on the steep southern slopes of the hill. Half of this was available for examination. In the time available it could only be stripped and mapped, but the well-preserved remains of a sub-rectangular building were revealed, with a doorway in the N side and a nearcentral hearth. It was 4.5m wide externally (2.4m internally), and if symmetrical would have been c 12m long. A sturdy wall built into an Iron Age midden provided the footings for a turf wall on the S side; elsewhere this was founded on bedrock or cobble foundations.

The date of the building is uncertain, as the occupation deposits had been homogenised or destroyed by the fire, although Late Roman pottery was found insecurely associated with the wall.

A further programme of fieldwalking and metal detecting over the burnt areas revealed a rich and diverse range of finds. Notable items include a conical gaming piece of cannel coal, beads of cannel coal and glass (including a Late Roman glass bead), a penannular brooch, a button-and-loop fastener and a range of Late Roman pottery. Earlier prehistoric finds include a microlithic core and a flake from a polished stone axe.

Archive to be deposited at RCAHMS.

Sponsors: HS , NMS.

F Hunter 2005