SCOTTISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTERNET REPORTS e-ISSN: 2056-7421 Ben Lawers: An Archaeological Landscape in Time Results from the Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project, 1996–2005 How to cite: Atkinson, John A 2016 ‘Ben Lawers: An Archaeological Landscape in Time’. Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports 62 DOI link: http://dx.doi.org/10.9750/issn.1473-3803.2016.62 Click http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/sair to visit the journal homepage. Please note: This document is the publisher’s PDF of an article published in the Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports journal. This version has been peer- reviewed and contains all final editorial corrections and journal pagination. Copyright © 2016 rests with the Society and the individual authors. 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BEN LAWERS: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE IN TIME Results from the Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project, 1996–2005 John A Atkinson With Chris Dalglish, Nicholas T Dixon, Michael Donnelly, John G Harrison, Olivia Lelong and Gavin MacGregor with contributions by: J D Bateson, Ann Clarke, Sue Constable, Adrian Cox, George Dalgleish, John S Duncan, Nyree Finlay, Craig Frew, George Haggarty, Janet Hooper, Lorna Innes, Joanne T McKenzie, Kirsteen McLellan, Jennifer Miller, Robin K Murdoch, Effie Photos-Jones, Susan Ramsay, Julie Roberts, Ingrid Shearer, Alison Sheridan, Ian A Simpson, Ronan Toolis, Margaret Watters, Robert S Will and Lyn Wilson Illustrations by Gillian McSwan, Ingrid Shearer and Jill Sievewright Affiliation GUARD Archaeology Limited, 52 Elderpark Workspace, 100 Elderpark Street, Glasgow, G51 3TR Corresponding author contact [email protected] Funding Historic Environment Scotland and National Trust for Scotland The Ben Lawers Historic Landscape Project was supported by the National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Russell Trust. e-ISSN: 2056-7421 http://dx.doi.org/10.9750/issn.1473-3803.2016.62 Published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland with the Archaeology Data Service archaeologydataservice.ac.uk. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland National Museums Scotland Chambers Street Edinburgh EH1 1JF United Kingdom Managing editor: Erin Osborne-Martin Copy-editor: Paula Martin and Susan Milligan Production: Raspberry Creative Type, Edinburgh Copyright © 2016 rests with the Society and the individual authors. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/ Requests for permission to reproduce material from a SAIR report should be sent to the Director of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, as well as to the author, illustrator, photographer or other copyright holder. www.socantscot.org Registered Scottish charity no. SC010440 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of illustrations v List of tables ix 1. Introduction .......................................................1 1.1 Background to the Project 1 1.2 Landscape, Topography and Geology 4 1.3 Structure of this Report 5 1.4 Acknowledgement of Contributors 6 1.5 Conclusions 6 2. Early Settlers in the Valley of the Tay by Gavin MacGregor & Ronan Toolis ...............7 2.1 The Terrestrial Evidence 7 2.2 Beneath the Water by Nicholas T Dixon 10 2.3 Beneath the Land 10 2.4 Excavations on the Edramucky Burn 10 2.5 Excavation of T9 at Meall Greigh 16 2.6 Excavation of P17 at Balnahanaid 22 2.7 Other Lithic Findspots by Nyree Finlay 25 2.8 Blades and Microliths in the Uplands during the Mesolithic by Nyree Finlay 27 2.9 The Balnahanaid eaker:B Burial Practices during the Neolithic? by Alison Sheridan 28 2.10 Summary and Conclusions 28 3. Iron Age Farmers on Loch Tayside .......................................31 3.1 Living on the Water during the Iron Age by Nicholas T Dixon 31 3.2 Building T3: An Iron Age Hut-Circle at Croftvellich 35 3.3 T15 at Tombreck 40 3.4 Summary and Conclusions 60 4. Early Historic Loch Tayside ............................................63 4.1 Balnahanaid: An Early Christian Graveyard? 64 4.2 Buildings T16 & T17 at Kiltyrie: The Early Occupation by John A Atkinson 71 4.3 Summary and Conclusions 77 5. Medieval Loch Tay: Living on the Margins...................................78 5.1 Excavation of Buildings T16B & T16C above Kiltyrie 78 5.2 Excavation of Building T17 at Kiltyrie 87 5.3 Summary and Conclusions 91 6. Late Medieval Loch Tay: Housing the Elite...................................95 6.1 Documentary Evidence by John G Harrison 97 6.2 Buildings of Some Status: The Relict Remains of the Elite Class 105 by John A Atkinson, Janet Hooper & Lorna Innes 6.3 Edramucky ‘Castle’: The ocumentaryD Evidence by John G Harrison 106 6.4 Edramucky ‘Castle’: The Physical Evidence by John A Atkinson, Janet Hooper & Lorna Innes 108 6.5 The Laird’s House at Blarmore or Carwhin: The Documentary Evidence by John G Harrison 109 6.6 The House of Carwhin: Thehysical P Evidence 110 by John A Atkinson, Janet Hooper & Lorna Innes SAIR 62 | iii 6.7 The House of Lawers: The Documentary Evidence by John G Harrison 118 6.8 The House of Lawers: The Physical Evidence by John A Atkinson, Janet Hooper & Lorna Innes 119 6.9 Summary and Conclusions 125 7. Post-Medieval Loch Tay: Occupying the Infields...........................127 7.1 Chronicling the Infield Settlements by John G Harrison 128 7.2 Excavation of Building P15 at Balnasuim 137 7.3 Excavation of Building T4 at Croftvellich 146 7.4 Excavation of Building T30 at Easter Tombreck 149 7.5 Summary and Conclusions 155 8. Post-Medieval Loch Tay: Settling the Outfields, and Industry around Loch Tay.............158 8.1 Documenting the Outfield Experience by John G Harrison 159 8.2 Duncan Cameron’s Farm in Craggantoll 165 8.3 Kiltyrie: A New Farm within the Outfields 168 8.4 Tombreck Outfields: Settled before 1798? 179 8.5 The Crofting Settlement of Balnreich 186 8.6 The Context of Industry in Breadalbane 196 8.7 Excavation of Structure P6 at Craggantoll 199 8.8 Summary and Conclusions 208 9. Post-Medieval Loch Tay: Exploiting the Margins...........................210 9.1 The Documentary Evidence by John G Harrison 210 9.2 The High Shieling-Group on the Edramucky Burn 213 9.3 Excavation of Building P11 on the Edramucky Burn 215 9.4 Excavation of Building P12 on the Edramucky Burn 218 9.5 Excavation of Building P13 on the Edramucky Burn 222 9.6 Excavation of Building P14 on the Edramucky Burn 225 9.7 Excavation of P16 on the Edramucky Burn 227 9.8 Interpreting the Edramucky Burn Shieling-Huts 232 9.9 The ighH Shieling-Group on the Lawers Burn 234 9.10 Excavation of Building T8 at Meall Greigh by Olivia Lelong 236 9.11 Excavation of Building T9 at Meall Greigh by Gavin MacGregor 241 9.12 Interpreting the Evidence from the Lawers Burn 245 9.13 The Low Shieling-Group above Kiltyrie 246 9.14 Excavation of Structures T16A & T16D above Kiltyrie 247 9.15 Excavation of Structure T20 above Kiltyrie 254 9.16 Interpreting the Kiltyrie Head-Dyke Sites 257 9.17 Summary and Conclusions 259 10. Ben Lawers in Context.............................................261 10.1 Cultural Material Views 261 10.2 Building a Chronology for Occupation 266 10.3 Occupying the Land of Lawers: Structures and Timelines 270 10.4 The Land of Lawers: A Final Comment 274 11. References....................................................275 SAIR 62 | iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1.1 Location-map defining the project area and key sites 1 1.2 Glasgow University students surveying, March 1996 2 1.3 NTS Thistle Camp volunteers surveying, March 2002 2 1.4 Loch Tay from Killin 4 1.5 Topographic context of Loch Tay 5 2.1 Distribution of early prehistoric sites on Loch Tayside 7 2.2 Croft Moraig stone-circle 8 2.3 Pitchstone blade found by RCAHMS (courtesy of Eve Boyle) 8 2.4 Cup-marked quoin at Carwhin 8 2.5 Chambered tomb at Kiltyrie 9 2.6 Location-plan of Edramucky Burn trenches 11 2.7 P16 trench-plan 12 2.8 P16 under excavation in 1998 12 2.9 P16 pit, plan and section 13 2.10 Quartz cores from P16 14 2.11 Flint blades from P16 14 2.12 The Moraine Bank above the Edramucky Burn 16 2.13 Meall Greigh trench location-plan 17 2.14 OS map extract of 1867 for shieling-grounds on the Lawers Burn 18 2.15 T8 plan prior to excavation 18 2.16 T9 trench-plan 20 2.17 T9 section 20 2.18 Flint scraper being recovered at T9 21 2.19 Flint scraper from T9 21 2.20 Extract from Farquharson map of 1769 depicting Balnahanaid 22 2.21 P17 trench-plan 23 2.22 P17 sections 24 2.23 Beaker from P17 25 2.24 Beaker recovered from P17 26 2.25 Pitchstone blades from Trench 30 at Easter Tombreck 26 3.1 Iron Age site-distribution map 34 3.2 Location of Croftvellich hut-circle 35 3.3 Surveying at Tomour and Croftvellich in 2002 36 3.4 T3 trench-plan 37 3.5 T3 sections 37 3.6 Evaluation of T3 by volunteers, September 2003 37 3.7 T15 at Tombreck under excavation, September 2004 41 3.8 Tombreck outfield location-plan 42 3.9 Geophysical survey area and excavation-plans 43 3.10 Resistance survey at T15 43 3.11 Magnetic survey at T15 44 3.12 GPR survey at T15 44 3.13 T15 excavation-plan 45 3.14 T15 post-hole and pit sections 46 3.15