Archaeological Evaluation

Date 9 August 2013

Event ID 963877

Category Recording

Type Archaeological Evaluation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/963877

The development area was located on the southern edge of a motte and bailey site know as Castle of Rattray Four evaluation trenches were excavated each measuring 2 X 15m and representing 6% of the available development area. The evaluation showed that the site contained a deep build up of homogeneous topsoil or colluvium as a result of hillwash off the motte and bailey feature. The topsoil deposit revealed little evidence of any stratification and bottomed onto fine orange natural sands and gravels. Two of the trenches crossed a large ditch feature extending approximately NE-SW across the site. The ditch contained a fill of homogenous silty loam virtually identical to the topsoil and in each trench a narrow slot feature bottoming into natural sand seemed to be associated with the southern edge of the ditch. In one trench where the ditch appeared, some fragments of slag (possibly metal working) were recovered from the lower part of the topsoil and in the same trench one fragment of slag was recovered from the bottom of the ditch fill. The slag could indicate that metalworking had been taking place nearby. No significant archaeological features appeared in the other two evaluation trenches and apart from the fragments of slag there were no significant datable finds. Mitigation in the form of a watching brief on development works was recommended.

Information from OASIS (alderarc1-156671) 9 August 2013