Newbarns

NO64NE 49 68256 49110

NO 683 492 The second season of a programme of trial trenching was carried out to the W of Newbarns Farm (McGill 1998). The field is rich in cropmarks of varying forms, some of which are Scheduled.

Eleven trenches were excavated: three within the Scheduled area and eight outside it. Of this total, only two trenches were devoid of archaeological features.

The excavated features comprised pits, linear ditches, natural ice wedges, a truncated ring-ditch house, a sub-rectangular enclosure (possibly a Dark Age timber hall), and a possible square barrow. No features produced any artefactual dating evidence, and provisional dates can only be applied to three feature groups (the ring-ditch house, timber hall and square barrow-type feature) on the basis of their morphology. The results supported the conclusions from the previous year's work at Newbarns that the clarity of cropmarks is the result of a combination of topography, ploughsoil depth, subsoil, feature depth, size and nature of fill, with the principal deciding factor being geomorphological considerations. There was considerable evidence across the site for plough-scoring of subsoil and features, suggesting that active truncation is occurring.

A detailed report will be lodged with NMRS.

Sponsors: Historic Scotland, University of Edinburgh.

C McGill 1999