Excavation

Date 23 March 2016 - 1 April 2016

Event ID 1024624

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1024624

NH 3725 3827 (centred on) A walkover survey and evaluation were carried out, 23 March – 1 April 2016, of the shieling settlement at Allt Moraig in March and April 2016. The shieling site is located to the NW side of the Allt

Moraig Burn. During the survey a total of 27 sites were recorded, primarily consisting of sub-rectangular/sub-oval turf and stone-built shieling structures partially enclosed by remnants of a stone-built boundary wall. Platforms and pits were also recorded on the site.

Two of the sites were selected to undergo evaluation. Site B was selected due to the substantial remains of the building evident below the turf. Site O appeared to sit on a small tell, indicating possible multiple occupation phases, and was selected to determine if this was indeed the case.

From the two structures excavated, it was clear that natural terraces were utilised with minimal or no landscaping taking place. It is not clear whether the areas were deturfed prior to construction or if turf was brought in to preserve the good grazing on the site. No evidence of roofing fabric was noticeable in the collapsed structural material – good pieces of material could have been removed or rotted away.

Floors within the structures consisted of hard packed dirt surfaces with some fragmentary areas of laid flat stones creating a rough paving or flat surface. Walls had been primarily constructed from turf with flat stones used at the base of the gable end wall in Structure B and some larger boulders incorporated into the wall in Structure O.

Some of the corners in Structure B had been revetted or incorporated with small-medium angular stones creating stone-edged faces.

The exact thickness of the walls and the size and individual positioning of turves was hard to determine, due to the condition of turf structures as they collapse and turves compress, collapse and spread. The walls were at least 0.5–0.75m thick at the base, which would have been necessary to build a wall c0.75–1.0m high and to keep it stable. Turves are likely to have been of different sizes with some sections utilising ‘through’ turves spanning the width of the wall to add stability.

Structure B was one of the few shielings thought during the survey to have contained an internal partition wall. It would likely have delineated spaces rather than fully separating the structure into two cells. It may have marked a sleeping area and opposing activity area nearer the entrance. The location of the entrance in Structure B was represented only by an exterior paved area on the E side of the structure. The presence of the base of a pot dated provisionally to the mid-1700s on the floor surface

underneath the wall collapse could place the use of this shieling in the mid-1700s.

Structure O was investigated primarily due to its contrasting more rounded shape and its location on a small mound. Structure O was similar in many ways to Structure B – a primarily turf built wall with some larger stones and a hard packed dirt floor. However, it was placed on a much larger depth of material above the natural subsoil. It is therefore feasible that O was a later structure built on earlier features which had been abandoned and eroded, creating the mound upon which O was situated. Without more extensive excavation of the rest of this structure this will remain unconfirmed but is a strong working theory and demonstrates the differing phases of use at this site.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: The Shieling Project

Cathy MacIver and Sam Williamson – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES, Volume 17)