HES East Lomond Archaeological Survey

Date November 2018 - November 2020

Event ID 1108707

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1108707

An archaeological survey of East Lomond fort was undertaken by HES Survey and Recording between November 2018 and July 2019 at the request of the Falkland Stewardship Trust, in order to provide an up-to-date record of the site to complement recent excavation. To this primary aim was added a research and development strand, focussed on the integration of field observation and 3D modelling, and the enhancement of illustrative techniques. Data processing, fieldwork and research were undertaken by Dr Łukasz Banaszek, Alison McCaig, John Sherriff and Adam Welfare, with the assistance of David Cowley and Dr George Geddes. Final editing was completed in November 2020.

A preparatory phase of fieldwork included the capture of 259 oblique aerial photographs from a fixed-wing aircraft with a Nikon D850 camera as well as ground control points created using a Leica Viva GS10 GNSS. The aerial photographs were processed through Agisoft Metashape software to generate a georeferenced point cloud, thereafter exported to a 10cm resolution Digital Surface Model (DSM) through LAStools. A range of visualisations was then produced using the Relief Visualisation Toolbox (https://iaps.zrc-sazu.si/en/rvt#v).

A second phase of work involved desk-based analysis of the visualisations in a GIS environment, field observation, and the collection of additional GNSS data. A plan and sections of the site (at scales of 1:1000 and 1:2000 respectively) were developed in Adobe Illustrator from a variety of sources, including DSM visualisations, GNSS data, and information drawn from oblique and vertical aerial photographs. The plan uses a novel method of displaying topography in which the ground surface is categorised by steepness (up to 15°, over 15° and up to 30°, and over 30°). This effect, combined with contours and the depiction of outcropping bedrock, is designed to provide a sense of the relationships between topography and archaeological features.

Written descriptions of the principle features were quality assured before entry into the National Record of Historic Environment (NRHE) and are accompanied by a site-area polygon. The descriptions should be read in conjunction with the plan of the site created during the survey project.

The project builds on previous assessments of the site, including the accounts of RCAHMS (1933, No. 244 and introduction; 1951 (MS)), OS (1968), Walker and Ritchie (1987) and S P Halliday (Lock and Ralston 2017), as well as a variety of other material, including excavation reports and oblique aerial photographs. East Lomond was one of the first sites in Scotland to be recorded by oblique aerial photography (RCAHMS 1933, fig. 13), and imagery has been captured regularly since 1981.

Information from HES Survey and Recording (LB, AM, ATW, GFG) July 2020.