Easter Calcots
Enclosure (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Easter Calcots
Classification Enclosure (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 16547
Site Number NJ26SE 32
NGR NJ 251 636
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/16547
- Council Moray
- Parish St Andrews-lhanbryd
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Moray
- Former County Morayshire
NJ26SE 32 251 636
(Location cited as NJ 251 636). Air photography (RCAHMSAP 1979 and AAS/89/08/S26/11-15, flown 25 July 1989) has recorded an enclosure in woodland and arable ground within a loop in the River Lossie where it crosses its floodplain at an altitude of no more than 5m OD.
NMRS, MS/712/36.
Magnetometry (15 November 2013 - 18 November 2013)
NJ 2516 6365 A geophysical survey using gradiometry was undertaken, 15–18 November 2013, for the Moray Archaeology For All Project. The survey aimed to characterise a multi-ditched enclosure which had been identified on aerial photographs. A total area of 27.6ha was surveyed at 0.25 x 0.5m intervals. The work detected the discontinuous arcs of two ditches of the enclosure. The inner ditch was characterised by a positive
magnetic signature and the outer by a more negative response. Rig and furrow, running W–E, was recorded up to the line of the inner ditch. Several possible pits and highly magnetic anomalies, probably relating to recent agricultural activities, were the only features identified within the ditches.
Funder: Part-financed by the Scottish Government and the European Community Moray Leader 2007–2013 Programme
Tessa Poller – University of Glasgow
(Source: DES)
Field Walking (23 March 2014)
NJ 2510 6363 During March and April 2014, volunteers from the Moray Archaeology for All community undertook a programme of field walks over known prehistoric settlement / enclosure sites in Moray. For further background information see Paddockhaugh, Birnie.
The fieldwalking at Easter Calcots was undertaken on 23 March 2014. The site was selected as cropmark evidence suggested the presence of a substantial circular enclosure. The area within the enclosure cropmark was found to be almost sterile in terms of finds, suggesting that the enclosure was probably used for stock management, rather than defining a
settlement area.
Archive: Moray HER and RCAHMS (intended). Finds: Elgin Museum (intended)
Funder: Part financed by the Scottish Government and the European Community Moray Leader 2007-2013 Programme
Dave Anderson and Leanne Demay – Anderson Archaeology (Scotland)
(Source: DES)
Excavation (24 October 2016 - 26 October 2016)
NJ 251 636 (NJ26SE 32) As part of the Northern Picts project surveys and excavations have been undertaken in an area stretching from Aberdeenshire to Shetland targeting sites that can help contextualize the character of society in the early medieval period in northern Pictland. In Moray we have been evaluating a series of forts in the wider environs of Burghead to attempt to construct a regional chronological framework for the development of fortified enclosures in Moray.
Easter Calcots represents an unusual enclosure located adjacent to the River Lossie. The enclosure is c150m in diameter and enclosed by at least one ditch. Two trenches were opened, 24–26 October 2016, using a mechanical digger, in order to ascertain the nature of the enclosure and acquire dating evidence. Both trenches contained the remains of a
relatively shallow ditch c3m wide at the widest. The ditch had a single, largely sterile fill. The ditch cut through very complex floodplain deposits, and no evidence for the function or date of the enclosure was obtained. Some well-fired pottery sherds or probably post-medieval date was found in disturbed contexts. Samples were retrieved for dating the ditch fill.
Archive: University of Aberdeen
Funder: University of Aberdeen
Gordon Noble and Oskar Sveinbjarnarson – University of Aberdeen
(Source: DES, Volume 17)
