Watching Brief

Date 17 March 2009 - 23 June 2009

Event ID 576414

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/576414

During the period 17-18 March 2009 and again on 23 June 2009, SUAT Ltd carried out a watching brief (SUAT site code FF12) on groundworks for an extension to Peggy Scott's restaurant at Finavon, Angus centred on NGR NO 4959 5747. The development site was of archaeological interest because the restaurant and new extension is situated within the site of a c 15ha Roman temporary camp identified by aerial reconnaissance in 1962. Ground stripping and foundation cuts for the new build walls covered an area of 323.75m² on the NW side of the existing restaurant. Ground stripping to formation level did not require the complete removal of the subsoil deposits but deeper trenching for the construction of walls and pillars intruded into the natural fluvioglacial deposits. The ground works revealed topsoil/ploughsoil 0.40m in depth over subsoil 0.15m thick. Within the NW part of the new build site was a spread of lighter soil below the topsoil which contained occasional sherds of modern pottery. In the central area was a deposit of disturbed subsoil containing abundant modern pottery and glass. The area on the SE side was cut by a plastic drain in gravel and a yellow plastic domestic gas pipe. The 2 x 9m excavation for a septic tank in a field on the E side of the restaurant and the associated drain trench revealed topsoil/ploughsoil containing some fragments of ceramic field drain and modern pottery over subsoil to a combined depth of 0.37m. A plastic field drain crossed the septic tank excavation on a N-S line and an early modern field drain comprising field cobbles in a matrix of silt crossed the cut for the septic tank drain on a N-S line. No deposits or features that could be associated with the Roman temporary camp were identified.

Information from OASIS ID: suatltd1-61762 (SUAT Ltd), 2009