Geophysical Survey

Date 1995

Event ID 559520

Category Recording

Type Geophysical Survey

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/559520

NH 745 450 and NH 740 448 Resistance and gradiometer surveys were conducted on two discrete areas of the battlefield at Culloden: the area around Old Leanach and an area in the extreme W of the land owned by NTS.

The project was instigated after cartographic research, and had three main aims: to establish the presence of remains of other structures around the extant building at Old Leanach; to locate the remains, if any, of a pentangular turf-built enclosure at the W of the battlefield; and to identify the position of the reputed 'grave of the English dead'.

The survey around Old Leanach successfully identified two regions of high resistance of similar surface area to the extant building which probably reflect the footings of associated buildings.

The larger survey to the W identified nothing of any great antiquity, save for a very faint anomaly noted on the gradiometer survey. This anomaly had a magnitude little greater than the background, and would be very difficult to view as significant, if it were not aligned on a similar orientation to the cartographic evidence for the turf dyke. Only excavation could confirm this interpretation.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland.

T Neighbour 1995.