Tullos Hill

NJ 9521 0323 (cairn) and NJ 9510 0346 (roundhouse) An excavation of two sites recorded during a survey in 2004 was carried out using local volunteers during July 2010. A cairn with a suspected robber pit in the centre, close to the scheduled Cat Cairn, was revealed to be a ring cairn. A cremation and a number of lithics were recovered from this site. A possible roundhouse on the northern slopes of the hill was found to have an eroded perimeter bank with facing stones. An internal drain was recorded but no clear postholes were identified in the bioturbated interior. Lithics and a single pot sherd were recovered.

Archive: Aberdeen City Council SMR and RCAHMS

Funder: Aberdeen City Council

Ian Suddaby – CFA Archaeology Ltd

NJ 950 030 (centred on) A programme of archaeological work was carried out, April 2012 – March 2013. The survey took place following gorse cutting, mitigation works following tree planting, and a watching brief during the formation of new paths.

Forty-nine new sites were recorded following gorse cutting. This represents a substantial increase in the known archaeological resource on Tullos Hill.

Following tree planting, 13 test pits were excavated within archaeological sites that had been affected by this operation. The extent of the work was limited by the size of the tree-planting pits. Test pitting revealed that one cairn site (Site 173) may contain structural stonework in the form of orthostats and one, possibly modern, site (Site 88) contained negative features.

Nine new sites were recorded during the path formation and additional information was forthcoming on eight others. Natural subsoil was rarely exposed.

A community excavation project, which was carried by a team of local volunteers led by CFA Archaeology, continued the excavation of a ring cairn and roundhouse.

NJ 9521 0323 A second quadrant of the ring cairn was excavated. The cairn was 8m in diameter and c0.5m high, with an open central area c3m in diameter. A large quantity of quartz chunks and pebbles had been incorporated into the make-up of the cairn. The central area contained a stone-lined pit whose fill contained fragments of cremated bone. Four tiny fragments of fired clay and five small lithic artefacts were recovered from topsoil. A 1938 5-Reichspfennig coin, recovered from the upper surfaces of the cairn, must relate to the nearby POW camp at Peterseat.

NJ 9510 0346 Excavation of the roundhouse revealed the heavily eroded outer wall and an internal ring ditch. Fifty pot sherds dating from the Middle Bronze Age and several worked lithics were recovered from the ring ditch.

Archive: Aberdeen City HER and RCAHMS

Funder: Aberdeen City Council

Ian Suddaby and Tim Neighbour, CFA Archaeology Ltd, 2013

(Source: DES)