Scoughall Farm

NT68SW 14 616 832.

Human bones were discovered at NT 516 822 on June 18th 1980 in sand being deposited near East Fenton farm on the line of the gas pipeline which was under construction. They had obviously come with the sand, from a sand quarry at NT 616 832, at Scoughall. At this site, further bones had been removed together with the slabs of what appeared to have been a long cist, and the digger operators mentioned earlier discoveries of bones and slabs in the general area over a period of many years. The quarry operators carefully removed the topsoil and sand overburden from the undisturbed area next to where the bones had been uncovered, but no further burials had been revealed by the time of a second visit to the site on June 20th. However, the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) were later informed that several cists had been revealed and further bones recovered. All the bones were collected and await study by an anatomist.

T Cowie TS, undated, in NMAS.

During work on the gas pipeline in 1980 excavation of sand revealed a long cist was revealed. There was no evidence of other cist being exposed during this survey.

Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 17th February 1996.