Inchmarnock, Southpark

NS 020 600 (island centre) The Archaeology of Inchmarnock Research Project, initated by the island's new owner, Lord Smith, was undertaken over the period 1999 to 2004 with the aim of providing as complete a record as possible of the island's archaeology; of identifying and understanding better what was there, precisely where it was, and how it might be preserved for future generations.

The overarching objectives of the project were to consider how Inchmarnock's inhabitants made use of their island landscape in the medieval and later period and how the island itself related to the wider world.

The preliminary results of each season's fieldwork, together with assessments of the artefacts and environmental remains recovered, were reported on an annual basis. In tandem with this was an extensive radiocarbon-dating programme, providing the chronological framework for the investigation.

Sponsor: Sir Robert Smith

Headland Archaeology, C Lowe 2008

NS 020 600 (island centre) An archaeological survey and evaluation was carried out on the island of Inchmarnock. Both prehistoric and medieval aspects of the island's past were explored. Building surveys were completed for the three farm steadings of Northpark, Midpark and Southpark.

Full reports have been lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsor: Sir Robert Smith

Headland Archaeology, S Halliday, 2000

NS 020 600 (island centre) Evaluation of the large cairn (Site 1) at the north end of the island revealed a stone kerb, reinforcing its interpretation as a funerary monument. It may, however, have been augmented with field clearance stones at a later date. The cup-and-ring marked stone (Site 3), near Northpark, was found to be a discrete slab, rather than part of a rock outcrop. Meanwhile, a series of upright stones (Site 7), in the woodland south of Southpark, may represent the lines of old field dykes, long since robbed of their stone.

A detailed survey of St Marnock’s chapel and its immediate environs was undertaken. Excavations in the field to the west of the chapel failed to find any evidence of the cemetery mentioned in the documentary records. A ditch, however, was located. It may represent the line of an old enclosure around the site.

Medieval corn-drying may be indicated by the robbed structures at Site 8. These, together with the two clearance cairns and old dyke at Site 11, may represent outlying elements of the small medieval or later settlement at Site 5, surveyed here for the first time. Meanwhile, evidence from the caves at the south end of the island (Sites 16A & 16B) suggests they were resorted to on a temporary basis in the medieval period.

Finally, one site (Site 9), previously identified as a possible structure, was found to be a natural feature.

Sponsor: Sir Robert Smith

Headland Archaeology, Stuart Halliday and Christopher Lowe, 2000

Site 11. Moss covered cairn, 4 x 3m and up to 0.8m high, lies just N of Dyke B1 at NS 02190 58774. Formed of small to medium stones over larger angular stones at base. A second clearance cairn, 1.5m in diameter and 0.3m high, located nearby at NS 02186 58789. Adjacent is a small patch of rig-and-furrow cultivation, roughly 30 x 40m. Rigs are roughly 2m apart, centre to centre.

Lowe 2008.

Two clearance cairns and an area of rig-and-furrow are situated in birch woodland 780m SSW of the ruins of Southpark farmsteading (NT05NW 27). The cairns lie about 15m S of the limit of the improved ground depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Buteshire 1869, Sheet CCXIV) and some 50m S of the limit of cultivation shown on a mid-18th century estate map (Foulis 1758-9). The area of rig appears to be situated outwith the cultivated ground depicted by Foulis, but it would have lain within the 19th century ‘improved’ field.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, MM, GB) 3 June 2009.