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Watching Brief

Date April 2004

Event ID 918929

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/918929

NO 7688 7651 (centre) Kair House is located within the perimeter of a 120 acre Roman marching camp, believed to be of Severan date. An underground electricity cable was to be installed to run from Kair House across a field to the N, on a SSW-NNE alignment. A watching brief in April 2004 located a large cut feature 35m NNE of Kair House, apparently containing within it the tumbled remains of an earth bank with a drystone facing. A trench was excavated into these features and exposed what appeared to be a ditch, 4.5m across and 1.45m deep, with a U-shaped profile, partially backfilled with random whinstone rubble. No artefacts were recovered, but soil samples were taken.

The location of the ditch within the camp perimeter tends against regarding it as a part of the Roman defences, and it was thought more likely that this represented a ha-ha associated with Kair House. However, radiocarbon dating of a sample taken from the primary fill of the ditch suggests a calibrated date of AD 1250 (95.4% probability). The possibility of a previously unknown medieval structure having existed on the site, perhaps a moated house, must therefore be given serious consideration.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Scottish & Southern Energy plc.

C Fyles 2004

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