Outfield
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Kiltyrie
| At Kiltyrie, a large team excavated a longhouse, a barn and a smaller outbuilding. We know from historical evidence that the township was established after 1790 by people moved from elsewhere along Loch Tayside. The longhouse had been abandoned by 1864 when it was mapped by the Ordnance Survey, but probably in fact several decades earlier than that. Inside the longhouse was a large byre with a substantial drain, paved flooring and a central hearth. It appeared to have had only one phase of construction and use, and may have been occupied for just a single generation. Coins found in the house should help to date its occupation. The barn excavated had been built with opposing doors and at right angles to the prevailing wind to assist with winnowing grain. Another building investigated was thought to be earlier than the barn. |
Volunteers recording levels |
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Volunteers doing just a few of the many different types of work that archaeologist do at Kiltyrie Longhouse |
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Soils work was also carried out around Kiltyrie to learn more go to the Soil Analysis Report.
Surveys and Excavations at Tombreck
| April 2004 saw the first of the Ben Lawers Archaeological Field schools
being undertaken this year. The aim of this years archaeological work
was to specifically target sites that may be earlier than the eighteenth
century in date and provide evidence of settlement types of medieval or
early modern date. To this end, and after consultation with Steve Boyle
of the RCAHMS, we decided to target two locations: Tombreck and Kiltyrie.
The work at Tombreck was focussed on a flat-topped knoll, located within a field that John Farquharson had called 'castle' during his survey of 1769. The name 'castle' was commonly used in the past to describe abandoned structures and locations that people assumed had been castles at a previous point in time. Although it was recognised that the knoll was unlikely to represent a castle in our modern understanding of the work, it may represent a type of site known as a 'homestead', which are fairly common in this part of Perthshire and date in some circumstances to the early historic period. The techniques applied here included topographic survey, geophysical survey and trial excavation. The results taken together provide good evidence that the site was indeed used for some form of settlement in the past, although disappointingly no datable artefacts were recovered from either of the postholes excavated. |
Trial trench excavation at Tombreck |
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| Techniques applied here included topographic survey (see
fig) and the excavation of two trial trenches within the two long buildings
of the group. The trial excavation revealed that one of the buildings
was nineteenth century in date, however the other lacked dateable pottery
and may be eighteenth century in date. There was also the suggestion of
an earlier building sealed below the floor of this house.
Survey plan of Tombreck |
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Topographic surveying at Tombreck in Spring 2004 |
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| Following on from the positive results of the archaeological
field school in April, a phase of fuller excavation was pursued at Tombreck
as the core objectives of the field school that year. This work was undertaken
over a four-week period in September 2004 and targeted a township building
and a possible homestead at Tombreck. |
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Volunteers excavating Trench 13 at Tombreck |
Volunteer excavating at |
Ingrid recording Trench 13 with a volunteer at Tombreck |
| The two trenches opened at Tombreck were located within
the same area as trenches 13 and 15 from the Easter season. In all cases
larger area trenches were excavated to take in as much of the buildings
as possible. Trench 13 at Tombreck was extended to take in the entire extent of a longhouse building (structure A), which represents the earliest building within this group. It also took in a portion of structure B, which was constructed after the earlier longhouse had gone out of use. Of particular note within structure A was the lack of a byre floor in the western end of the building, which appeared to have an earthen floor similar to that witnessed in the eastern half of the building. The eastern half exhibited classic elements of a domestic living space including a central hearth and adjacent fire pit. The fire pit was filled with burnt material and sealed with a worked stone with a circular hole in the centre. This may suggest it use could have ben for production of small quantitites of charcoal or may simply have been a smooring pit used to keep the fire's embers burning over night. Although the relative chronology of structures A and B is established with some certainty, the absolute chronology of the building in trench 13 will largely rely on the dating of the finds assemblage. Almost no secure pottery was recovered from the building's interior, however a small group of pottery and clay pipe fragments was recovered from the fire pit and a drain running across the building. |
Volunteer excavating at Tombreck |
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Volunteer excavating the possible homestead at Tombreck |
Also at Tombreck trench 15 was extended to cover a large area of the interior of the knoll where trial excavations in April had indicated the potential presence of a homestead structure. Excavation of a trench of 15 m by 10 m in extent revealed a complex of seventeen pit and posthole structures within this area surrounding a large stone flag and cobbled area in the south-wrest of the trench. Although no dateable artefacts were recovered an assemblage of worked stone was revealed, including at least two fragments of quern stones, fragments of dressed masonry and at least one example of a re-used cup-mark rock. Dating of the remains will need to rely upon radiocarbon assays for charcoal recovered from the postholes, some of which contained post-pipes and had clearly been burnt in situ. Traces of potentially three roundhouse structures were recorded at the site, though no evidence of hearths was apparent. At the moment the site offers a tantalising possibility that it may represent a form of domestic dwelling, which may date from the Iron Age or early historic periods. | |
| Although no dateable finds were recovered an assemblage of worked stone was revealed, including at least two fragments of quern stones, fragments of dressed masonry and at least one example of a re-used cup-mark rock. Dating of the remains will need to rely upon radiocarbon dates for charcoal recovered from the postholes, some of which contained post-pipes and had clearly been burnt in situ. Traces of three roundhouse structures were recorded at the site, though no evidence of hearths was apparent. At the moment the site offers a tantalising possibility that it may represent a form of domestic dwelling, which may date from the Iron Age or early historic periods. |
Volunteer excavating at Kiltyrie |
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Geophysics work was also carried out at Tombreck go to the geophysics report
Shenlarich
The work at Shenlarich was focussed on a relatively flat south-facing field to the north-west of the current Shenlarich farmhouse. The aim here was to open five trenches (21-25) to investigate a series of geophysical anomalies discovered during the surveying of the site in October 2004. The site was thought to be the location of Shenlarich township as depicted by Farquharson in 1769. The results were disappointing with all trenches founded fairly rapidly on outcrops of bedrock.To learn more about the geophysics carried out at Shenlarich then go to the geophysics report
John Atkinson
GUARD [External Link]
