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Pilmuir
Barrow Cemetery (Prehistoric), Pit(S) (Period Unassigned), Rig And Furrow (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Square Barrow (Iron Age), Unenclosed Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Pilmuir
Classification Barrow Cemetery (Prehistoric), Pit(S) (Period Unassigned), Rig And Furrow (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Square Barrow (Iron Age), Unenclosed Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Greshop Farm; Balnageith
Canmore ID 15813
Site Number NJ05NW 35
NGR NJ 02142 58372
NGR Description Centred NJ 02142 58372
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/15813
- Council Moray
- Parish Forres
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Moray
- Former County Morayshire
NJ05NW 35 centred 02142 58372
(NJ 020 583). Crop-marks on river gravel suggest Iron Age settlement of circular huts. Some, at least, consist of two concentric circles where the inner may represent a continuous trench to hold timber uprights and the outer, narrower, circle or drainage gulley or eaves drip. Both are interrupted for an entrance.
J K St Joseph 1970
NJ 0204 5819: Possible huts. NJ 0220 5834: Possible huts.
Visible on AP's (RAF/F21:540; RAF 1083: 0175-6, flown 1953)
The crop-marks occur on a reclaimed and cultivated 2nd World War aerodrome. No ground traces.
Visited by OS (AA) 29 April 1971
Aerial photographs taken by I A G Shepherd in 1982 and 1988 indicate that the area is more suggestive of a barrow cemetery or funerary site. Round, square, and a possible long barrow can be identified from the photographs, together with some peripheral cultivation remains.
Information from RCAHMS (GMW), January 1994.
(Location cited as NJ 020 583 and classified by Aberdeenshire Archaeological Service as unenclosed settlement and square barrows). Air photography by CUCAP and GRC/AAS (imagery specified on AAS record sheet) has recorded the cropmarks of possible circular huts within the area of the former airfield (NJ05NW 97.00) on the river terrace to the W of the Findhorn; two are interrupted for an entrance and comprise two concentric circles, the inner being a continuous trench to hold the uprights ands the outer a narrower drainage-gully or eaves drip. There are possible hut sites at NJ 0204 5819 and 0220 5834.
Two 'foci' can be recognised within the the cropmarks: (1) comprises a line of 3 'ring-ditch houses' and 2 other smaller ring-ditches in the middle of the field while (2) is situated nearer the river and comprises a broad penannular mark, a curvilinear mark (truncated by the field boundary) and other dubious linear features. The 'cropmarks' that are noted by CUCAP (at NJ 021 583) are both amorphous and indeterminate and there are no apparent surface remains.
NMRS, MS/712/17 and MS/712/19.
(Classified as circular enclosures). Air photographs: AAS/94/14/G28a/15 and AAS/94/14/G28/1-4.
NMRS, MS/712/21.
Excavation (2 April 2012 - 25 May 2012)
NJ 0212 5844 A programme of archaeological work was undertaken 2 April – 25 May 2012 at Greshop Farm cropmark site (NJ05NW 35) prior to work associated with the Forres Flood Alleviation Scheme. A 3.2ha area of topsoil was stripped, including a 12m strip through a scheduled monument (4020), and this was followed by 1250m2 of evaluation trenching. Neither the topsoil stripping across the scheduled monument nor the trial trenching revealed any features of archaeological significance. However, removal of topsoil from an area to the E of the scheduled area, which contained a number of possible cropmarks, revealed a number of natural features and a group of three square barrows. These were excavated and were found to have been somewhat plough damaged.
Archive: RCAHMS (intended)
Funder: Royal Haskoning
Lindsay Dunbar, AOC Archaeology Group
2012
