East Barns, Windmill

NT77NW 41 717 763.

The site of a windmill, marked on Fowler's 1824 map of Haddingtonshire. This structure was apparently demolished in the mid-19th century to make way for a steam-powered threshing mill.

I L Donnachie and N K Stewart 1967

Archaeological trial trenching in September and October 2005, amounting to 84,535m2, in the westernmost 132ha portion of a proposed quarry development at East Barns, revealed significant archaeological remains in three discrete areas, all of which will require additional investigative work. Given the excavation of a significant Mesolithic house (DES 2003, 56-7) in the immediate area, a programme of test pit survey, incorporating community involvement, was undertaken concurrently with the evaluation trenching. The 296 test pits failed to discover any significant distribution of small finds, although one barbed-andtanged arrowhead was recovered at NT 7149 7666.

Extensive trenching failed to locate archaeological material at the following sites:

NT77NW 41 Late 18th-century windmill.

NT77NW 19 Two small cropmark enclosures (?ring-ditches).

NT77NW 25 ?Ring-ditch.

Only scant evidence - two curvilinear features - was unearthed when trenching in the area (NT 77 2 7 56) of a palisaded enclosure (NT77NW 30) lying adjacent to the Dryburn. While these two features may represent associated remains, no trace of the palisade slot was unearthed.

The site of at least one stone-built roundhouse with a paved floor and apparently two building phases was discovered at NT 7199 7681. Large piles of stone rubble in adjacent trenches probably mask the ground plan of additional roundhouses.

Post-holes and a curvilinear feature distributed over an area of approximately 500m2 probably denote later prehistoric timber-built roundhouses at NT 7285 7577.

Archive to be deposited in NMRS.

Sponsor: Lafarge Cement UK.

J Gooder, Martin Cook 2005