5, Mellon Udrigle, Laide, Gairloch Parish, Wester Ross House 1 of Two New Houses Planning Ref No
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5, Mellon Udrigle, Laide, Gairloch Parish, Wester Ross House 1 of two new houses Planning Ref no. 07/00760/FULRC Archaeological Watching Brief Catherine Dagg for Iain and Karen Walker Driftwood Properties LLp 5 Mellon Udrigle Laide Wester Ross IV22 2NT 5, Mellon Udrigle, Laide, Gairloch Parish, Wester Ross House 1 of two new houses Planning Ref no. 07/00760/FULRC Archaeological Watching Brief Site summary Rural site 189427 895573 Site location (NGR) Total area of construction 30m x 30m Work required Archaeological Watching Brief Area of monitoring required All ground breaking work. 1.0 Background This evaluation covers one house site to the SE of the small crofting township of Mellon Udrigle, on the west shore of Gruinard Bay in the parish of Gairloch in Wester Ross. This house is a proposed holiday let and does not include a garage but does include short access road and hardstanding. The development is the first of two sites, the other will be covered by a watching brief at a later date A brief for archaeological work has been prepared by the Archaeology Unit of the Department of Planning and Development at Highland Council, as a condition of the granting of planning consent for the present development. This area is considered to be sensitive: prehistoric remains lie in the surrounding area. There is a potential for buried features to survive within the application site and to be impacted by the proposed development. An archaeological watching brief is needed at this site because there is a potential for associated finds or features of interest to be discovered during site works. A watching brief enables any discoveries to be recorded quickly and efficiently as they appear with minimum delay or disruption to the development. 2.0 Archaeological Background No systematic archaeological investigation has been carried out in the general area of the development. A number of features marked on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map have been identified as possible prehistoric features and recorded as such on the 2 Historic Environment Record (HER). Other recorded features, also taken from the 1st edition OS map, are early modern, pre-crofting township features such as buildings and enclosures. 2.1 Sites with Statutory Protection There is one Scheduled Monument in the vicinity of the development: • Mellon Udrigle hut circle at NG 891 956 SAM ref no. 6181 This structure is located among the dunes within the caravan park and is at present flanked by two static caravans, each with a small boundary fence. The monument is vulnerable to robbing of stones and use for campfires but, while this situation is unsatisfactory, it will not be affected directly or visually by the proposed development. There are no Listed buildings or Designed Landscapes in the vicinity of the development. 2.2 Recorded archaeological sites The following sites are recorded on the HER: • Hut circle (possible) at NG 8914 9552 HER no. 39992 • Building unroofed, at NG 8914 9552 HER no. 39117 • Enclosure at NG 8914 9552 HER no. 39986 • D-shaped enclosure and 3 buildings at NG 89 95 HER no. 39115 • Two unroofed buildings at NG 8911 9538 HER no. 39113 This group of buildings are all located within in-bye croft land to the west of the development, on a steep slope. • Two unroofed buildings at NG 8928 9552 HER no. 39118 Present occupied crofthouse with detached byre • Building ‘bothy’ at NG 8917 9547 HER no. 39116 Roofed and in use, byre associated with crofthouse • Hut circle (possible) at NG 8917 9547 HER no. 39114 Not located on a steep slope overgrown with heather 3 2.3 Cartographic Evidence The 1st edition 6” map shows eight unroofed buildings with sections of dykes and two circular features to the west of the proposed development area. These would appear typical of a pre-crofting landscape of scattered small farmsteads and enclosed areas of improved ground which fell out of use with the lotting of crofts on land further west. A second cluster of buildings, dykes and enclosures, with the three buildings shown as roofed, is located east of the development. The 2nd edition OS map shows some of the buildings recorded as unroofed in the 1870s as roofed in 1905, and long sections of dyke or fence linking the two clusters. This may represent a population increase and spread of crofting back in to formerly cultivated areas. The two circular structures identified on the HER as possible hut circles are within the west farmstead cluster. They are not shown on the 2nd edition OS map or on the 1990 1:25000 OS Pathfinder map. 3.0 Site Description The house site is located on a level terrace immediately behind an access road which runs to the 1960s chalets immediately to the east. To the south of the site, the ground rises steeply to Meall nam Meallan, from which rocky ridges extend down to the shore which, although low, narrow and vegetation covered, form natural barriers to east and west of the site. A recently dug ditch runs down the east side of the site, and wet ground along the south boundary indicates natural drainage. (Photos 1-4) The central area of the site is slightly raised and thinly covered with vegetation, exposed cobbles indicating a former storm beach The vegetation cover of the site includes grass, bracken, nettles and brambles with rushes in the drain. Local memory is of this entire area being covered in rhubarb, a typical croft garden plant. Within two arms of the rocky ridge to the west are sections of rubble walling, filling the gap between the rock and a boulder to create a shelter or pen. (Photos 5-8) 4.0 Watching Brief This was carried out on 21.4.09 in dry and sunny weather conditions. Stripping of vegetation revealed a broad ridge of beach cobbles crossing the site in a matrix of dark sandy topsoil (Photos 9-11). It also revealed a previously un-noted water main leading to the holiday chalets. While this was being mended, the opportunity was taken to excavate trial pits at two locations: 4 Test Pit 1. Location: SE corner of site Stratigraphy: a. Black sandy topsoil with heavy content of bracken root…..350mm b. Clean, pale beach sand……………………………………..200mm c. Compacted cobbles in matrix of dark, wet heavy soil….…..120mm Finds: none Interpretation: The compacted cobbles at a depth of 550mm is the upper side of the storm beach, shelving steeply into poorly drained ground. This is overlaid with windblown beach sand, itself overlain by topsoil and vegetation. No human activity is noted in this stratigraphy. Test Pit 2. Location: SW corner of site Stratigraphy: a. Black sandy topsoil containing bracken roots………..400mm b. Clean, pale beach sand……………………………….420mm c. Dark sand-soil mix containing charcoal flecks………..30mm d. Clean, pale beach sand………………………………...70mm e. Dark sand-soil mix similar to c………………………100mm The lower layers, c-e, shelved down from W-E Finds: small fragments of charcoal, one fragment burnt bone. Interpretation: The cobble layer was not reached in this test pit but is presumed to lie deeper than the 1.2m reached. There is the suggestion of a former soil layer, covered by windblown sand, and that this soil was improved or cultivated, in the inclusion of charcoal and burnt bone, either from field clearance or from spread midden material. Why this horizon should shelve down from W to E is unclear. Recommencement of topsoil stripping revealed a deposit of what appeared to be midden material, consisting of large quantities of limpet and winkle shells in a matrix of dark, heavy organic soil (Photos 15-18). This was first noted in the SW corner of the site, extending 4m east of the corner but petering out, and contained behind the high cobble bank crossing the site. The west edge of the stripped area exposed the rising bedrock of the low N-S ridge. The midden material appeared to overlie the cobbles, (although a number of cobbles were intermixed with the deposit), and abutted onto the bedrock, creating a clearly defined western edge to the deposit. Stratigraphy in the exposed section south of the area of hardstanding was as follows: a. black topsoil with roots………;………...250mm b. loose mixed black deposit with shells…..400mm c. Cobbles in black soil Samples were taken from the disturbed area, see below. As there was no need to excavate deeper over the area of hardstanding, lower layers were not investigated. Although there was no midden deposit overlying the high part of the cobble bank, the deposit was present on the north, seaward side of the bank. A test pit was excavated in an undisturbed area to ascertain the stratigraphy: 5 Test Pit 3. Location: 1m west of NW corner of site Stratigraphy: a. black sandy topsoil with bracken roots………200mm b. Clean, pale beach sand….200mm to E, 450mm to west c. Midden deposit ………………………………570mm d. Cobbles in pink-brown sandy soil Finds: within sample, see below. Interpretation: midden material probably spread over a wide area, mostly undisturbed (Photos 19-21) Completion of topsoil stripping clearly showed the bank of cobbles shelving north under a deep deposit of beach sand (Photos 12-14) No further archaeological deposits or features were revealed during excavation of foundation trenches. 5.0 Samples Sample 1. From deposit in SW corner of site. (Photo 23) A larger sample was investigated, which allowed the retrieval of a greater number of larger bone fragments. In this sample, limpet shells were in the majority although there was a quantity of winkles. Many of the limpets had the appearance of being ‘stacked’ inside each other, a phenomenon noticed in other limpet-rich midden sites (eg Shiant Isles) and interpreted as being the product of hand-shucking (Photo 22) Two small fragments of mussel were the only other shellfish represented.