Auchategan, Glendaruel

Excavations undertaken between 1967 and 1970 on a terrace on the E side of Glendaruel, 400m E of Clachan of Glendaruel, revealed a series of occupation-deposits beginning in Neolithic times. The earlier phases have been described in volume 6 of this Inventory, and the following description of the later phases is based on the published excavation report (en.1). The only visible remains are slight traces of a rectangular stone house in a forestry plantation.

Overlying a post-hole structure of period 3 there were a hearth which produced a radiocarbon determination of ad 660 ± 100 (GaK-2768), and an extensive scatter of coarse iron slag and furnace-bottoms, with a large flat stone which may have supported a bloomery bellows. A cobbled patch connected the site with a charcoal-pile.

Above this level there was a rectangular structure about 6m from E to W by 2.5m within drystone walls incorporating edge-set facing-slabs, heavily robbed on N and Wand nowhere more than one course in height. There was a blocked doorway 0.6m wide at the centre of the S side-wall, with traces of an opposed doorway in the N wall, and the floor-level W of the doorway was about 0.4m below that of the E half, where there was some evidence of a hearth. Immediately N of the building there were remains of a peat-stack which may have been associated with it.

The house was overlain by and had been robbed to provide material for three small huts of shieling type. The most substantial (hut 1) occupied the W half of the house and measured about 3.3m by 2.7m within walls incorporating some edge-set slabs, and apparently packed externally with turf. The entrance was in the S wall, with a hearth which may have been contemporary with it immediately outside to the w. Huts 2 and 3, which overlay the Sand N walls of the E half of the house, were fragmentary. The former was a circle about 2.4m in diameter, with the entrance apparently at the E, while only the W wall of hut 3 remained in situ. It contained evidence of hearths, and opened on the N to a cobbled area. The space between the three huts had been packed with turf.

About 70m NNE of the main site there was an oval structure (hut 4), about 5m from E to W by 2.5m within a robbed wall nowhere more than one course in height. There was an entrance at the centre of the S wall and a slightly raised area of paving at the E end, but there was no evidence of its function.

No significant dating-material was associated with any of these structures, but the rectangular house may have been of medieval or sub-medieval date, while the later huts were probably shieling-huts. The site lay on the township of Auchategan, whose present dwelling is in the valley-bottom 0.9km to the N (NR 999851), in or near the position indicated on Roy's Map of about 1750. In 1693 the township belonged to the Campbell of Glendaruel estate and four tenants were assessed for hearth-tax (en.2).

RCAHMS 1992, visited November 1986

Excavations were undertaken between 1967 and 1970 on a terrace on the E side of the valley of the River Ruel at a point 380m E of Glendaruel Hotel, in order to examine a site thought to be St Modan's Chapel; the chapel was not discovered, but the work revealed a series of occupation deposits from Neolithic to recent times, and the following account is a summary of the published report (Marshall 1980). Only the early levels will be described here (Periods 1-4), because the later levels -Period 5 (a rectangular stone house), Period 6 (a complex of shieling-huts), and Hut 4 - fall beyond the chronological span of the Argyll Inventory, Volume 6 (RCAHMS 1988). Only the outline of one of the later rectangular structures can still be detected within a forestry plantation.

Two phases of Neolithic occupation were discovered (Period 1), the earlier represented by traces of two ill-defined huts, which were identified as cleared areas on the rock surface, with hearths and post-holes. In the second phase there was a series of well-built hearths, associated with further post-holes and an extensive collection of Neolithic artefacts (pottery, flint, pitchstone, 'pot-lids' and a greenstone axe). Charcoal from a hearth belonging to the second Neolithic horizon provided a radiocarbon determination of 2300bc +- 110 (I-4705). The flint artefacts included knives, scrapers and arrowheads in distinctive Neolithic forms; sherds of about sixty vessels were represented, notably carinated and open bowls in Grimston style.

Period 2 remains comprised a hearth, a structure resembling a cist and an unusual semicircular cairn measuring about 4.5m by 2.8m, which contained a second cist-like feature. The body of the cairn consisted of stones, sand and occupation debris from the Neolithic horizon, and the perimeter had been carefully constructed of long slabs. The cist, which lay near the centre of the straight side, was aligned NW and SE and measured about 0.55m by 0.45m and about 0.45m in depth; it contained earth, flecks of charcoal and one tiny sherd of pottery, with stones laid out on top of the fill. The second cist, situated about 4.4m to the ESE, was aligned N and S, and measured about 0.35m by 0.3m internally. Both cists were of unusual construction in that one end was composed of several stones and was lower than the other three sides; in neither case was there a capstone. Fragments of burnt were discovered both above and below the stones which covered the earthy fill-material.

Period 3 was represented by a series of post-holes up to 0.47m deep and packed with long narrow stones, defining a structure which measured about 5.5m by 4.3m; the timber superstructure was evidently clad with panels of wattle and daub. The only finds were two discs of schist, perhaps 'pot-lids', and two rubbing-stones. The radiocarbon determination for the hearth was later than Period 3 but earlier than the rectangular stone house of Period 5, is ad 660 +- 100 (GaK -2768).

Period 4 was represented by the debris of an iron-working site, the main focus of which was uncertain, but it was stratigraphically earlier than the rectangular stone house of Period 5.

Visited November 1986

RCAHMS 1988