Baadhead

NO 00050 11400 and NO 00890 12100 As part of the SERF

project five days of walkover survey and site recording

were carried out, 10–14 August 2010, by students of the

universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen and elsewhere as part of

an archaeological field school. This is the fourth season of an

ongoing survey programme investigating the uplands above

Dunning and Forteviot. The survey covered an area of c1.1 x

0.5km on the N slopes of the Ochil Hills, between Piperstones

Hill and Scores Burn (centred on NO 00050 11400 [NO01SW 192]). Informal

site recording was also carried out on Waughenwae Knowe,

which lies c1km to the NE of the main survey area (NO 00890

12100).

The most striking finding this year was the clear relationship

between a series of turf-walled enclosures and multiple

braided cattle tracks. As suggested by our work on Casken

Hill in 2007, the mostly trapezoidal enclosures were probably

used for tathing cattle at some point in the post-medieval

period, perhaps during the 17th and 18th centuries, when the

soil was sufficiently enriched to be used for cultivation.

The braided cattle tracks appear only on the steeper slopes,

where there was the most erosion from the animals’ hooves.

They typically fan out from the break of slope into anything

between three and eight separate furrows, normally c0.5m

deep and c2m wide. An examination of the contacts between

the enclosures and the tracks indicated that the animals

were diverted round the outside of the enclosures, or in

one case funnelled between them. The tensions between

the cultivators and the herders taking their animals to and

from their upland summer pastures are clearly visible on the

ground.

A well constructed pathway ran up the hill cutting into

the slopes, with one causeway across a boggy area. This

presumably led to and from a substantial farmstead below

our area (at NO 00280 11945 [NO01SW 29]). The earlier phase of this

farmstead shows a central courtyard with subdivided

rectangular structures on three sides and a grain drying kiln

on the other. This may be the ‘Scores Farm’ marked on a

1783 map of the area by Stobie. The stones from this were

later reused to build a sheepfold.

On Waughenwae Knowe are a series of quarries, clearly

associated with the construction of the straight stone

dykes marking 19th-century improvement and a substantial

enclosure on the summit, surrounding an area of rig and

furrow [NO01SW 193].

Archive: Currently University of Glasgow and RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Historic Scotland, University of Glasgow and University of Aberdeen

Archaeological features were identified and mapped from airborne remote sensing sources, such as lidar, historic vertical aerial photographs, and 25cm orthophotographs.

Information from HES (OA) 12 May 2017

Title: Interdisciplinary approaches to a connected landscape: upland survey in the Northern Ochils.

Authors: Michael Given, Oscar Aldred, Kevin Grant, Peter McNiven and Tessa Poller

Journal: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 148, pages 83-111

Publisher: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh

Publication date: 2019

From: MCE 2023. This project was reviewed as part of the Grant-Aided Project Review (GAPR). Publication was completed in 2019. Open Access publication with the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Publication grant-aided by HES