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River Devon
Farmstead (Post Medieval), Field System (Post Medieval), Head Dyke (Post Medieval)(Possible), Kiln (Post Medieval), Sheepfold (Post Medieval)
Site Name River Devon
Classification Farmstead (Post Medieval), Field System (Post Medieval), Head Dyke (Post Medieval)(Possible), Kiln (Post Medieval), Sheepfold (Post Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Frandy Fish Farm
Canmore ID 219320
Site Number NN90SW 55
NGR NN 9487 0496
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/219320
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Blackford
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
Field Visit (19 March 1998)
NN90SW 55 9487 0496
This farmstead is situated on the leading edge of a grass-grown terrace above the N bank of the River Devon to the NE of the Frandy Fish Farm. It comprises the footings of three buildings, a kiln, and at least four enclosures. Two of the buildings (GDEV98 48, 49) have been incorporated into a sheepfold that is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Perthshire and Clackmannanshire 1866, sheet cxxvii), which had largely been removed by 1946 ( vertical aerial photograph RAF 106G/SCOT UK 120, frame no.3263, 20 June 1946), perhaps to provide stone for another sheepfold to the W ( NN90SW 56, NN 9475 0491).
The largest of the buildings (GDEV98 48) measures 12.7m from NE to SW by 3m transversely within robbed stone footings spread to 1.1m in thickness and 0.3m in height; its SW corner has been removed by the construction of the road to the Glendevon Reservoirs. The interior has been divided into two compartments and there is an entrance in the SE side. The other buildings lie to the SE (GDEV98 49, 50) and SW (NN 9484 0591), the latter situated within a small rectangular enclosure around a midden hollow. The kiln bowl (GDEV98 50) is levelled into a natural slope to the E of the buildings and measures 3.1m in diameter.
To the SW of the farmstead, at NN 9484 0491, there are the disturbed footings of a further building with a midden hollow on its NE side. At least three further small enclosures lie beside the building.
The field-system extends across a well-drained, grass-grown spur between the River Devon and the Meadow Burn and comprises four subrectangular turf-banked fields. There are high-backed rigs, measuring about 5m between furrows, in the interior of the northern fields, and flatter rig of similar width in the other fields. Local successions of construction can be seen throughout the field-system. These, together with two short lengths of field-bank that have been truncated by rig, show that the pattern of fields visible today is a result of multiple phases of cultivation and enclosure. The W side of the westernmost field overlies a substantial field-bank, which cuts across the spur from the edge of the terrace beside the farmstead to the Meadow Burn, and may be an earlier head-dyke.
(GDEV98 48-50)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC), 19 March 1998.
Excavation (April 2009 - April 2010)
NN 9487 0497 A programme of field work was undertaken
April 2009–April 2010 prior to and during the construction
phase of the Burnfoot Wind Farm access track. Known
cultural heritage sites were fenced off and a watching brief
was undertaken within defined areas. A trackway and turf
bank were recorded and a suite of remains, uncovered at
NN 94871 04965 [ND90SW 55], were revealed by excavation to be part of
a multi-phase building, dated by artefactual material to the
18–19th century.
Archive: RCAHMS (intended). Reports lodged with Perth and
Kinross SMR and RCAHMS
Funder: Wind Prospect Ltd
