Watching Brief

Date 1998

Event ID 550816

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/550816

NT 1200 9400 (centre) A watching brief was undertaken as part of an Environmental Assessment at the opencast coal site of Blairenbathie. The site of a former 19th-century brick and tile works and two domestic cottages, identified in a previous evaluation (Strachan 1996), were examined, as well as additional structures.

A small rectangular building measuring 10 x 5m was identified as a workers' lobby (rest room). Within the W end of this small room, the remains of an iron grate were found in situ. The foundations of the building comprised waster drainage tiles which show that this building was not a primary component of the brick and tile works.

A kiln was situated about 10m W of the workers' lobby. Its rectangular outer walls measured 12.3 x 8m and were constructed of bonded brick. The kiln chamber floor lay 1.5m below the present ground surface and was found to be heavily disturbed, although ten courses of brick survived on its western side. The positions of the fire boxes (stoking holes where coal was laid) could not be determined. It is considered, from the remains of fragments of brick-arch, that the kiln was a single-chambered rectangular Scottish updraught example with arches over the fire boxes.

Rubble was cleared from an L-shaped building situated to the NE of this, perhaps associated with the Blairenbathie Coal Pit (which was abandoned in 1876). The building walls were of bonded brick (stamped HILL OF BEATH) and enclosed the vestigial remains of a tiled floor.

A detailed report will be lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsor: William W Graham (Contractors) Ltd.

M Cressey 1998