Black Loch Of Myrton

Crannog, Black Loch Plantation, Monreith.

The O.S. map indicates the site of a crannog in the Black Loch plantation within the policies of Monreith. Some slight excavation was done on this crannog some twenty-five years ago. There was found a pavement of flat stones laid in clay about 9' in diameter and irregularly circular; stones, much fire marked; grinding stones of white quartz; and masses of corroded iron and vitreous slag.

See Ayr. and Gall. Arch. Coll., v. p. 82 (footnote).

O.S.M., WIGTOWN, xxx. SE.

NX 3610 4283 Following the identification of worked oak wood, disturbed by drainage operations in the former Black Loch, an assessment survey of the disturbed area was carried out 29–30 July 2010. Reconnaissance coring and test pitting established the location of a probable crannog, which seems likely to have been clipped by the main drainage run-off trench. One of the test pits encountered a pile and horizontal timbers; these were sampled for radiocarbon dating.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Historic Scotland

Graeme Cavers – AOC Archaeology Group

NX 3612 4280 An excavation was carried out, 15–27 July 2013, on the settlement at Black Loch of Myrton to characterise the site identified in 2010 (DES 2010, 52–3). Radiocarbon dates obtained in 2010 had indicated activity during the mid- and later first millennium BC.

A trench was placed over one of the large stony mounds situated on a raised area of ground in the Black Loch plantation. This located the remains of a timber roundhouse with a massive central hearth, built from large quarried greywacke blocks retaining water worn cobbles and capped with a large hearth slab. The hearth had been refurbished twice, each time with a new layer of cobbles, a capstone and clay lining. Fragments of a saddle quern and some highly corroded iron objects were recovered from close to the hearth.

Surrounding the central hearth was a surface of roundwood logs, overlain by reeds and other plant material used as flooring. Alder and oak posts formed a central postring surrounding the hearth, and outside of this was a concentric ring of narrow stakes forming the outer wall of the house and defining a structure c11m in diameter.

Removal of the sub-floor roundwoods showed that the building had been constructed on natural peat (lacking the artificial foundations of a crannog), indicating that the settlement was located beside, rather than in, open water. Coring transects across and beyond the site found lake sediments only in the areas to the N and W of the settlement, suggesting that the Black Loch had never been an extensive body of water prior to drainage in the 19th century, and that the settlement had been located on the wetland periphery of the loch. Topographic survey of site indicated that there are at least eight further stony mounds. A trial trench on one mound suggested that they indicate the position of further buildings.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: Historic Scotland

Graeme Cavers and Anne Crone, AOC Archaeology Group, 2013

(Source: DES)

OASIS ID: aocarcha1-245374

The objectives of the 2015 season were to excavate a portion of Structure 2 and to locate the palisade around the settlement. A team from the AHRC-funded programme Celtic Connections and Crannogs were also present to undertake an extensive coring survey of the Black Loch. Structure 2 had been identified by survey and testpitting in 2013, lying to the SE of Structure 1. Trench 2, 10.5 m x 7.3 m, was opened up, the size and location constrained by the presence of trees. The excavation revealed a roundhouse some 13.2 m in diameter with a massive stone hearth complex at its centre. The outer wall consists of a double line of stakes and within this there is a post-ring which encloses an area 8.8 m in diameter around the hearth. The excavation exposed about 25% of the structure although almost the entire hearth complex was exposed in the SE corner of the trench. The lowermost deposits on the site, those under and immediately around the hearth could not be excavated because of increasing water levels. Consequently, the relationship between the lower floor levels and the lower sequence of hearths cannot be demonstrated with absolute certainty. Nonetheless, floor surfaces have been ascribed to hearth phases by working on the premise that the lowermost surviving floor level must correspond to the lowermost hearth, and so on. The excavated evidence is described from earliest to latest.

Information from OASIS ID: aocarcha1-245376 (N Johnstone) 2015

NX 3610 4283 (NX34SE 9) Excavations were carried out at the Black Loch of Myrton in 2015 and 6–26 June 2016, uncovering evidence for a very well preserved early Iron Age settlement, located on the fringes of a boggy loch. In 2015, excavations focused on one of the many large hearth mounds

identified on the site. This was found to be a large stone and timber hearth setting, over 2.5m2, located at the centre of a timber roundhouse (Structure 2) c13m in diameter. The hearth had been refurbished at least three times by adding a new layer of cobbles, clay and timber on top of the previous hearth base. Associated with the hearth was a sequence of

flooring deposits comprising reeds, wicker panels and clay spreads, again showing evidence for repeated refurbishment. The wall of the roundhouse was found to comprise a double ring of stakes, around 300mm apart. In the better preserved areas of the outer wall, woven withies survived in situ to a height of c200mm from ground level. In the area where the walls approached the entrance to the house, the wicker walling was replaced by vertically-set oak planks, forming a façade-like outer face. The entrance of the roundhouse was located and excavated in 2016, and was remarkably well preserved. Like the central hearth, the entrance structure had been refurbished at least three times. The lowest levels were in very good condition, and comprised several dressed logs showing evidence for jointing and dowelling. Two ‘sleeper’ beams were jointed with sockets, presumably for vertical posts at the terminals of the roundhouse wall. Provisional radiocarbon dates from the occupation deposits in Structure 2

indicate mid-1st millennium BC for its occupation.

Excavations near the perimeter of the settlement in 2016 located evidence for several phases of enclosure, the earliest of which comprised a closely-set palisade of alder logs c250mm in diameter, and the latest of which may have been a heavy stone wall. Within the early perimeter, beneath the later stone wall, the remains of two clay structures were discovered, interpreted as cooking ovens. These structures were very similar in design, comprising a clay dome, probably supported by a wicker basket-like structure, still preserved in the earlier example, over a base of flat greywacke slabs. In the later oven, remains of cooking debris was recovered from the oven base and contained large quantities of hazel-nut

shells, burnt bone and marine mollusc shell. The ovens were probably located within a building, and were associated with compacted reed floor deposits similar to those encountered within the roundhouses on the site. However, excavations in this area were too limited in extent to elucidate the form of this structure.

Artefacts were limited in number and variety from both seasons of excavation. However, a large number of stone tools was recovered, including querns, rubbers and grinders, as well as a small clay ‘thumb pot’. A decorated stone spindle whorl was recovered from deposits near the entrance to Structure 2 in 2016.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Graeme Cavers and Anne Crone – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES, Volume 17)

NX 3610 4283 (NX34SE 9) One of the objectives of this year’s fieldwork, 22 May – 10 July 2017, was to determine the extent, nature and complexity of the defensive perimeter around the settlement. To this end Tr7, an L-shaped trench 40m2 in area, was laid out over the natural causeway onto

the island, where the entrance onto the site was anticipated. The excavation revealed a series of wooden palisades and an earthen rampart which run around the edge of the island and terminate on either side of the causeway.

The earliest defensive line in the stratified sequence was a stake-and-wattle fence. This was replaced by a similar fenceline behind which the remnants of a low earthen bank were found. This earthen bank had been cut through to construct a later palisade consisting of a slot into which large flat-based oak posts had been inserted and packed around with edge-set slabs and boulders. An earthen rampart, 0.3m high and 1.9m wide was built up behind the oak post palisade and topped with a cobbled surface.

The outermost defensive line was a palisade of massive vertically-set oak planks. The line of this palisade was tracked around the S edge of the island in a series of slot trenches. It terminated at the point where the alder post palisade found in Tr6 in 2016 begins. The oak plank palisade

cannot be stratigraphically related to the sequence outlined above because it lies some 3m outside the oak post palisade in the loch sediments.

A trackway ran across the causeway, between the terminals of the palisades and rampart, and on into the interior of the settlement. The outermost section of the track, up to the point where it met the oak post palisade and rampart, consisted of tangentially-laid oak planks and was flanked by a post-built wall and short bank which terminated at the junction with the oak post palisade. Beyond this point the construction of the trackway changed to one of brushwood bundles, each layer being laid at right angles to the one below. The trackway was 1.9m wide. The brushwood section was refurbished at least once, again with brushwood bundles, and was finally capped by a cobble surface.

Evidence for earlier activity was found beneath the rampart. This consisted of a thick deposit of unburnt hazelnut shells, some 0.37m thick, which sealed two horizontally-laid hurdle screens. Other features beneath the rampart included a rough alignment of stakes and a line of posts; all these features were uncovered in a relatively restricted area and consequently, it

is currently unclear as to what they represent.

A further trench was excavated over a low stony bank, associated with an area of high resistance identified by geophysical survey. This trench uncovered evidence for the stone platform or trackway encountered in excavations in 2016. Beneath this stony layer and sealed by a thick charcoal layer was evidence for a building, possibly a roundhouse, with a central stone hearth. This hearth had been refurbished at least once in a similar manner to those encountered elsewhere on the site, and was associated with a wicker subfloor structure and layers of laminar reed flooring. Evidence for an earlier phase of enclosure of the settlement was

found directly beneath this building, in the form of heavy palisade of alder posts, averaging 0.30m in diameter. These posts were set in a deep slot cut into the natural peat, and were preserved to over 1.5m in length. Few artefacts were recovered, but included coarse stone pounders and rubbers, and a saddle quern.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Graeme Cavers and Anne Crone – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES, Volume 18)

NX 3610 4283 This season of excavation, 21 May – 9 June 2018, focused on the junction between the phase 1 enclosure palisade and the log trackway leading into the settlement, as well as a roundhouse structure located NE of the track. Excavations uncovered the original entrance to the phase 1 enclosure, marked by a dressed oak threshold beam and the remains of a gatepost and wooden gudgeon block. The second-phase enclosure entrance in Trench 7 was also investigated further, finding a very similar threshold beam. Both thresholds were in good condition and overlain by wicker matting, perhaps designed to help with drainage, suggesting they were refurbished soon after their construction.

Structure 3 was a roundhouse c9.4m in diameter, located to the NE of the log track. The building was of far flimsier construction than Structure 2, containing none of the substantial oak planks used in the wall of that building. In other respects, the design was similar, however, with a series of at least eight phases of flooring and hearth refurbishment comprising wicker sub-floors overlain by bracken and clay flooring. Unlike any other structure so far investigated at Black Loch, Structure 3 was relatively rich in artefactual material, with several sub-triangular crucibles, a bone comb, shaped bone implements and a remarkable turned yew baton-like object all recovered from the floors.

Cut into the peat beneath the roundhouse structure was a deep pit containing animal bone (including cattle skulls), a crucible fragment, an intact saddle quern and a superbly-preserved decorated wooden bowl. This vessel is lathe-turned from Maloideae sp. and decorated with incised dots, lines and lozenge motifs. It is probable that this pit represents a midden relating to a relatively early phase of occupation of the site; C14 dates place the objects in the mid-first millennium BC.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Graeme Cavers and Anne Crone – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES Vol 19)

NX 3610 4283 The 2019 season of excavation focussed on the further exploration of Structure 3 and the establishment of a stratigraphic relationship between the midden pit excavated in 2018 and the structures on the settlement (Canmore ID: 62815)

Further excavation in Structure 3 clarified the sequence of eight phases of flooring and hearth construction, involving at least seven hearth refurbishments. As in other structures identified on the site, the flooring of Structure 3 was comprised of woven wicker hurdles laid flat and covered with reeds and leaf litter, with evidence for repeated refurbishment. The earliest floors were the most artefact rich, producing wood-turning debris in the form of a bowl waster as well as fragments of a wooden plate-like object, a fragment of birch bark roll and a woven withy ring. In the sixth phase of refurbishment within the building a large stone working platform was constructed to the N of the central hearth, though the specific purpose of this feature was not clear. The superstructure of the building was rebuilt on several occasions, with multiple non-concentric stake rings present within the footprint of the structure; a tentative chronology for this sequence was established and remains to be tested by dendrochronology.

Trench 18 investigated the area between the primary log trackway and the midden, establishing that the latter comprised the fill of a deep feature cut into the natural peat, but which respected the trackway. The extents of this cut feature on the N side of the track were traced by reconnaissance coring, suggesting that it continues around the perimeter of the settlement to the north; it is possible therefore that the cut feature comprised a ditch dug around the peat island at an early stage of the occupation. Both this feature and the track predated the construction of Structure 3, which overlay the midden fill. C14 and dendro dating has established that this expansion of the settlement occurred soon after the original establishment, however, in the late 5th/early 4th century BC.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Graeme Cavers and Anne Crone – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES Vol 20)