Keig, Cothiemuir Hill

NJ61NW 146 NJ 617 198

NJ 617 198 A desk-based assessment and field survey were carried out in May 2005 in advance of the creation of a natural burial site. A recumbent stone circle is located on the top of the hill (NJ61NW 1), while remains of rig and furrow are visible on the N and E flanks.

Three zones of rig and furrow were recorded, probably belonging to two separate areas of cultivation: an E-W series of rigs across the E slope of the hill and a more NNW-SSE series on the N slope. These correspond with the areas, although not the orientation, of the rigs shown on Roy's military map of 1747-55. Cultivation of the lower slopes of the hill was clearly happening in the mid- 18th century and probably continued until the establishment of the enclosed plantation in the early 19th century. Such cultivation may have begun as early as the medieval period. It is of note that pre- mprovement cultivation respected and avoided the Neolithic stone circle. The rigs had been truncated by the plantation enclosing dykes. Their continuation in both shelter belts to the E of the hill suggests that the cultivated fields to the E and N have removed evidence of the rigs in these directions. On the hill the rigs have been preserved by the enclosure and by the non-mechanised nature of the early plantation. Survival of all the rigs is best at the lower edge of the slope, near the enclosing dyke; probably due to soil movement downhill with each ploughing, giving a greater build-up of the rigs at their downhill ends. There was no evidence of the turning curve of the plough teams at the top of the rigs, but this is

not surprising in view of the thin soils and low nature of the rigs at the upper ends.

With the exception of an overgrown bank and a section of wellbuilt estate drystone dyke, no other archaeological features or finds were evident within the boundaries of the survey.

Report to be lodged with Aberdeenshire SMR and NMRS.

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