Excavation

Date May 2001

Event ID 1031794

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1031794

Kirkdale Archaeology were asked to excavate a small trench, and monitor the excavation of three test trenches at Hackness, on Hoy, an early 19th-century gun battery. The trench was to be dug at the top of a set of steps leading down to the powder magazine for the installation of a concrete pad, to allow the reinstatement of the stairs. Three small, machine dug, test pits were to be excavated to the N of the battery, in order to assess the drainage potential of the area to assist the provision of toilets to the monument.

The hand dug trench inside the battery was located 105cm to the W of the top of the stairs. Apart from the slate fragments noted (but not retained) in F002, no finds were recovered.

The turf in a hand-dug trench was of very recent origin, and the rubble it overlay presumably represents building or demolition debris associated with the powder magazine. The slope to the base of this deposit probably represents the edge of the hole into which the magazine has been built, in an attempt to absorb the blast of any accidental explosion. The trenches revealed nothing of archaeological significance.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

D Murray and G Ewart 2001

Kirkdale Archaeology