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Excavation

Date 16 October 2002 - 18 October 2002

Event ID 1034289

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1034289

Under the terms of its P.I.C. call-out contract with Historic Scotland, Kirkdale Archaeology was asked to undertake an archaeological investigation of the 1st World War defences on Inchcolm Island. This was carried out over the 16th-18th of October 2002. Work was carried out at two sites at opposite ends of the island (Areas 1& 2, Fig. 1). A watching brief was undertaken on the hill top to the E during a clearance operation by MCU personnel followed by a partial excavation of a gun emplacement overlooking the Forth in the SW quadrant.

Area 1 would comprise one of 4 WWI gun positions partly buried in the undergrowth along the high ridge on the SW edge of the island. The gun position would be designated Emplacement 2, counted from the W, and would be half sectioned and cleared before being photographed and drawn (Figs. 2& 4). The purpose of this work was to evaluate the condition of the gun positions with a view to their visitor potential.

Area 2 was to the E, on the highest point of the island, amongst a complex of partly demolished gun positions and military structures. The exact site of the work was an area of scrub and rubble against the E side of one of the buildings which hid the entrance to a 5m deep vertical shaft. The purpose of the shaft had been to connect the defenders on the hill to a WWI supply tunnel below. When the island’s defences had been decommissioned the shaft had been sealed over with large metal plates which in turn had been buried under an unknown depth of rubble.

The purpose of the archaeological presence in Area 2 was to monitor the work of the MCU personnel in digging away the rubble and fully exposing the top of the seal which it is believed may be starting to succumb to the weight of the overlying debris.

Area 1

The partial excavation of the gun emplacement on the SW edge of the island suggests that the main structure is broadly intact with relatively little degeneration of the concrete and brick. Clearing and exposing the upper sections of the emplacement would be an easy task requiring a simple turf removing exercise. The intramural chambers in the N wall could easily be cleared out to their full extent while the access on the N side of the structure would have to be located and re-established. The land against the N wall is a mass of debris and deliberate infill which presumably represents subsidiary buildings now flattened and spread about and which would require a certain amount of excavation and creative landscaping.

Area 2

The excavations over the top of the sealed shaft indicate that a full clearance of the shaft top would involve a significant effort of work which would require the shoring up of the metal sheets of the capping from below as well as the fencing off of an area which is totally unsupervised. The implications therefore for both workers and visitors will be not inconsiderable.

G Ewart 2002

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

Kirkdale Archaeology

People and Organisations

References