Watching Brief

Date October 2018 - March 2019

Event ID 1126672

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1126672

NN 90214 18297 (centred on) Monitoring of tree felling and the construction of a circular pathway to enhance public access to the Innerpeffray Library and Chapel was undertaken, in stages, from October 2018 to March 2019.

The development area slopes down to the River Earn, and is approximately 0.5ha in size. The project consisted of the felling and clearing of the woodland cover followed by the construction of a circular pathway within a newly planted managed woodland. The site is of archaeological significance as it contains a road cutting along its S eastern boundary which may represent the Roman Gask Frontier road, running eastwards towards Perth from its crossing of the River Earn at a ford below the Innerpeffray Library.

The pathway excavation was constantly monitored and revealed loose black organic silty loam, topsoil with abundant root disturbance containing a moderate amount of rounded and fractured stone with occasional large stone inclusions, and a maximum depth of topsoil of 0.30m. Towards the NE end of the pathway cut, some black ash and red burnt soil at the level of the subsoil were revealed where the machine had cleared through some recent tree burning. Below the topsoil was a subsoil, excavated to a depth of 0.10–0.50m comprising mid to dark grey silty clay loam, getting lighter with depth. Nothing of archaeological significance was found during the monitoring of the pathway excavation.

While monitoring deturfing on the track between Innerpeffray Library and the Schoolhouse, the top of the fill of a 19th-century NW–SE aligned soakaway was uncovered. The soakaway was 1m wide and contained some broken sandstone slabs on the surface. Alongside the soakaway was a layer of sand, gravel and black ash makeup for the pathway.

The planting of 60 saplings over the site revealed nothing of archaeological significance.

After monitoring tree felling and pathway formation and the first phase of tree planting, the watching brief was terminated due to the lack of any significant archaeology being uncovered during the monitoring of a comparatively large area of groundworks.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Innerpeffray Library and Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust

Ray Cachart − Alder Archaeology Ltd

(Source: DES Volume 21)