Forres, 88-94 High Street, Smoker's Building

NJ05NW 94 037 588

Six pits were opened up (by Scottish Urban Archaeology Trust) in the vennels on either side of the property block, and one pit was excavated in the backlands. No excavation was carried out in the pends on the High Street frontage.

The building was partially basemented and had been constructed on natural sand. No relevant archaeological deposits were seen in the pits against the foundations. In the vennel on the N side of the property, in situ archaeological deposits and features in the form of cuts and fills were recorded in a trench, 14m back from the High Street frontage. Several interesting sherds of medieval pottery, believed to date from the 13th century, were recovered from the deposits. The nature of the lower stratigraphy suggested that a boundary ditch may have existed down the centre of the vennel. The archaeology reached a maximum depth of 0.7m and was confined to a strip about 0.7m wide down the centre of the vennel. The S side of the strip had been totally truncated by several service trenches.

A test pit in the backlands on the E side of the property revealed a linear feature constructed with medium-sized stone fragments and what appeared to be a floor surface. Some 19th-century pottery sherds were found.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland.

R Cachart 1993.

This was the last phase of trial work by SUAT in advance of development on the site of the recently demolished Smokers building at 88-94 High Street. Previous trial work in 1993 (supra) identified a medieval pit or ditch feature in the northern vennel. Further work in this vennel extended the pit feature previously identified and found that it was cut by a much smaller pit.

Only the NE part of the earlier pit was revealed, The southern edge had been cut by the services running through the middle of the vennel and its western side had been archaeologically excavated and backfilled during previous trial work. All that remained was a curved butt end to the E and part of the almost vertical N and E side. The pit bottom was fairly flat, and it contained medieval pottery. Five stake holes against the northern edge of the pit were recorded.

The purpose of the later pit with pebble fill is uncertain it may have been structural, perhaps serving as a post pad, or functional, serving as a soakaway. The pottery and wattle lining of the larger earlier pit would date this feature to the medieval period. The waterlaid deposits of silt and charcoal inclusions suggests an industrial function, perhaps a quenching pit.

The medieval pottery: The two phases of excavations produced a very small assemblage of 17 medieval pottery sherds. This material was a mixture of a potential local Redware fabric, sherds from a glazed fine ware import and two bodysherds of East Coast White Gritty ware,

The imported fabric is probably from a water jug, glazed a lustrous green and may be a product of the Yorkshire ware kilns. The discovery of this pottery is very important as it represents the first stratified group of material from the medieval burgh of Forres.

Sponsor: First Samurai Investments.

R Cachart and D W Hall 1994.