Meadowend Farm

A programme of site investigations along the route of the New Kincardine Crossing was undertaken between November and December 2005. As mitigation, two set-piece excavations were carried out between January and April 2006.

The first excavation was at Garlet House (NS99SW 20). The second excavation was at Meadowend Farm, near Clackmannan (NS 9280 9040). In total, an area of some 4ha was stripped and features excavated. Over 2000 fragments of Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery were recovered. Most of the pottery came from two groups of shallow pits and postholes.

Prehistoric features

The first group of features contained over 100 pits, some of which contained layers rich in charcoal. A number of heat-affected sandstone slabs, probably used as hearths, were also found in the area. Pottery was recovered from over a third of the pits. This largely consisted of rims and body sherds of middle/late Neolithic Impressed Ware. They showed a wide variety of decoration techniques including stab-and-drag ornament, fingernail impressions and finger pinching. A small number of early Neolithic sherds were also recovered.

The second group included a number of postholes with clear post-pipes and packing stones, but no structures were identified. This area contained around 40 pits, almost half of which contained Neolithic pottery. A small polished stone axe was found in the area of the first group of pits and a rough-out for a larger axe was recovered from one of the second group. Both axes are made from similar igneous stone. The finds from these groups of pits date make this the earliest part of the site, dating to the later 4th/earlier 3rd millennium BC.

Structures were associated with each of the two pit groups. Near the first pit group was a substantial roundhouse (Structure 1), 17m in diameter with an outer ring-groove and an entrance to the SE with an extended porch. Inside was a stone-lined hearth, immediately opposite the entrance. Prehistoric pottery was recovered from deposits within the hearth. Approximately 500 fragments of plain bucket-shaped middle/late Bronze Age pottery came from a single pit that truncated this structure.

Two large post-built roundhouses were found in the area near the second group of pits. These both had long porches, one with an entrance to the SE, the other to the NW. A third post-built structure was associated with a hearth pit immediately outside the NE-facing entrance. This had been filled with fire-cracked stones and charcoal. Only very small amounts of pottery were recovered from these and other structures on site, and most of it was undiagnostic of date. It is hoped that radiocarbon dating will enable the structures to be more precisely dated.

Medieval features

Two grain-drying kilns were found on site. These were both roughly keyhole-shaped in plan and each had a stone-lined bowl and flue. The bowls of both kilns were partly dug into an old stream channel, with the fire-pits at the lower end. Large quantities of burnt grain were recovered from thick charcoal deposits in the bowls of both kilns. We recovered 12th- to 15th-century white gritty ware from the fills of both kilns. A possible rectangular structure was found to the SE of the kilns. Its postholes contained similar pottery and it may be associated with crop-processing activities.

Broad rig cultivation was found across all areas of the site. Several field systems were evident from the changes in furrow alignment and at some point a larger area was taken in to cultivation once the grain-drying kilns and associated structures went out of use.

NS 905 858 A series of possible glider traps were identified in the course of the evaluation to the S of the Forth.

Archive to be deposited in NMRS.

Sponsor: Scottish Executive

Elizabeth Jones, 2006.