Excavation

Date August 2009 - September 2009

Event ID 608421

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/608421

NJ 210 585 In August–September 2009 continuing excavations (DES 2008, 122–3 with further references) focused on four main trenches. The bulk of destruction deposits in the NE quadrant of the well preserved burnt-down roundhouse were excavated, with considerable quantities of well preserved charred remains. To the E, full exposure of a cropmark feature partly excavated previously (DES 2001, 67) revealed it was a ring ditch house some 12m in diameter which had also burnt down, with well preserved timbers in the ring ditch. Among the destruction deposits was a Fowler type A3 penannular brooch and part of a Guido 13 glass bead. The house was single-phase. Post-abandonment activity was attested by a stone-built hearth, although no convincing signs of a connected building could be detected. A roundhouse partly explored in 2000 (DES 2000, 59) was fully exposed. Unusually it had two entrances. The ring groove, 11.6m in diameter, must have held the structural weight of the building, as there was no post-ring. To the N, remains first seen in 2004 were shown to be a substantial two-phase ring ditch house, a maximum of 15.6m in diameter. Again this had burnt down, with remarkably good preservation of large charred timbers in structural relationship surviving just below the topsoil. Further work is planned to explore this feature. To its E lay a much smaller post-ring house, the ring some 5.6m in diameter. Adjacent to this, examination was completed of the central features of a house excavated previously (DES 2004, 84). Two further trenches confirmed that the density of remains falls off dramatically to the E.

Funder: NMS, Historic Scotland, Moray Field Club, RAF Lossiemouth and Lord Doune

Fraser Hunter – National Museums Scotland