Housing Development at Land at Viewhill Farm, Balloch, IV2 5EA 17/03396/FUL
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Housing development at Land at Viewhill Farm, Balloch, IV2 5EA 17/03396/FUL Data Structure report Alison Cameron and Dr Robert Lenfert Cameron Archaeology Ltd Date: 28 August 2018 CONTENTS 1 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................... 3 2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................... 4 3 THE WATCHING BRIEF ..................................................................................... 10 4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................... 11 5 REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 12 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... 13 APPENDIX 1 Archaeological and historical sites within 1km of the proposed site ......... 14 APPENDIX 2 MAPS ................................................................................................... 15 APPENDIX 3 PHOTOGRAPHS .................................................................................. 16 ILLUSTRATIONS Cover: watching brief Phase 1 clearing the area of the former farm Illus 1 Location plan ..................................................................................................... 3 Illus 2 Proposed development with Culloden Muir Conservation area and Inventory Battlefield area. ........................................................................................................... 7 Illus 3 Location of watching brief areas at Viewhill shaded in red ................................. 11 Illus 4 First Edition OS map showing site outline in red................................................ 15 Illus 5 Second Edition OS map showing site outline in red ........................................... 15 Illus 6 1946 aerial photograph with site outline in red; facing N .................................... 16 SUMMARY A watching brief was carried out from 9 July to 15 August 2018 during the soil strip for this housing development (Highland Council Planning Application no 17/03396/FUL). Areas of former fields had shallow topsoil and the areas previously occupied by the former farm were disturbed by rubble and services. No archaeological finds or features were recorded and it is recommended that no further archaeological work is required during the current development. Viewhill, Balloch DSR Cameron Archaeology CA382-2017 2 1 BACKGROUND 1.1 The site (Illus 1) is located at Viewhill on the SE side of Balloch and NW of Newlands of Culloden. It is centred on NGR NH 73672 45983, at 130-135m OD in the parish of Inverness and Bona. 1.2 The work was commissioned by Kirkwood Homes. An application 17/03396/FUL Highland Council requires a watching brief. 1.3 All the archaeological work will be carried out in the context of Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) Planning Advice Note (PAN 2/2011) and Historic Environment Scotland's Policy Statement (HESPS) which state that archaeological remains should be regarded as part of the environment to be protected and managed. Illus 1 Location plan (Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2018) Viewhill, Balloch DSR Cameron Archaeology CA382-2017 3 2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 The site lies within the Culloden Muir Inventory Battlefield area and the Culloden Muir Conservation Area (Illus 2). The Battle of Culloden took place on 16th April 1746 between about 4500 men under Charles Edward Stuart and a Hanoverian force of 9000 led by Duke of Cumberland. The battle positions were as shown on plan and result was an overwhelming victory for Hanoverians. A modern memorial cairn bearing an appropriate inscription has been erected at a spot where there was intense fighting. The associated memorials and ground on which they stand are owned by the NTS (Brander 1975; Prentice 1976). A management plan for those parts of the battlefield site in the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland was drawn up and agreed in January 1993 (Anon, 1993). A desk-based assessment, including a map regression exercise, was carried out by K Aitchision for the NTS in 1994 in an attempt to locate the position of several turf dykes which were known to have been important during the battle. Unfortunately the exact location of the dykes and other structures could not be pinpointed owing to the inaccuracy of the C18 mapping (Aitchison 1994). The NTS have worked steadily on the restoration of Culloden battlefield towards how it would have looked at the time of the battle. After an analysis of contemporary plans of the battlefield, an attempt was made to locate a small polygonal enclosure in which the English dead are said to have been buried, and to assess whether any of surviving enclosures could date from time of the battle. All of the current drystone enclosures seem to date from around 1845, but to some extent follow the approximate lines of the larger enclosure shown on plans of 1746. As anticipated, no trace of the turf dyke could be found. However, a geophysical survey of the field is now planned, in the hope of locating the English graves and from there surmising the position of the turf dyke: the polygonal parish boundary, which seems to mimic the dyke, should provide supporting evidence if the geophysical survey is successful (Turner 1994). Resistance and gradiometer surveys were conducted on two discrete areas of the battlefield at Culloden by CFA (Edinburgh) in 1995: the area around Old Leanach and an area in the extreme west of land owned by NTS. The project had three main aims: to establish the presence of remains of other structures around the extant building at Old Leanach; to locate the remains, if any, of a pentangular turf-built enclosure at the west of the battlefield; and to identify the position of the reputed 'grave of the English dead'. The survey around Old Leanach successfully identified two regions of high resistance of similar surface area to the extant building which probably reflect the footings of associated buildings. The larger survey to the west identified nothing of any great antiquity, save for a very faint anomaly noted on the gradiometer survey. This anomaly had a magnitude little greater than the background, and would be very difficult to view as significant, if it were not aligned on a similar orientation to the cartographic evidence for the turf dyke (Neighbour 1995). Reconstruction of turf dyke formerly existing in 18th c., by National Trust in 1995 (Wood 1995). In June 2000 and September 2001 a programme of fieldwork was carried out on the battlefield site. The fieldwork included: topographic survey of the battlefield area; ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of the clan graves and the 'Field of the English' (where Government troops are presumed to have been buried); metal-detector survey of the 'Field of the English' and the area between the Interpretation Centre and the clan graves; geophysical survey of the area around Old Leanach Cottage and the area between the Interpretation Centre and the clan graves and excavation of the denuded walled feature adjacent to Old Leanach Cottage, traditionally referred to as the 'Red Barn'. The project provided a new insight into the battle through the examination of archaeological evidence. The metal-detector survey revealed that both the Jacobite and Hanoverian lines extend Viewhill, Balloch DSR Cameron Archaeology CA382-2017 4 further to the south than previously believed. Geophysical survey and excavation of the area adjacent to Old Leanach Cottage failed to reveal any evidence for activity pre-dating the C19. The GPR survey revealed the presence of grave pits beneath the mounds in the clan cemetery. Results of the project were broadcast on BBC2 in early 2002. Reports on this work have appeared in the book which accompanies the TV series and a full academic report, probably to appear in monograph form with the other five British battlefields investigated as part of the project, will also be forthcoming (Pollard & Oliver 2002) Geophysical surveys involving both resistivity and magnetometry were carried out by Archaeological Services WYAS in 2004 in five areas around the Culloden Battlefield site in advance of the proposed construction of a new visitor centre and car parking facilities. The survey area comprised approximately 9 hectares of rough pasture, to the south and east of the original visitor centre. No anomalies of a probable archaeological origin were identified in any of the areas likely to be affected by the development proposal or outlying areas closer to the known battlefield site. Areas of high resistance east of Old Leanach may have been caused by rubble associated with buildings referred to in the aftermath of the battle. Many of the identified anomalies were interpreted as being caused by natural features or by variations in the underlying drift geology (Schofield & Webb 2004) A series of geotechnical test pits and boreholes were archaeologically monitored by CFA Archaeology Ltd in 2004 following a geophysical survey and prior to the construction of new visitor facilities. In addition a metal detector was used to scan for artefacts in the topsoil immediately prior to excavation of the test pits and subsequently on the spoil heaps. No archaeological features were exposed and no artefacts were recovered (O'Connell 2004). A multi-faceted investigation was undertaken in April 2005 at Culloden battlefield by GUARD as part of the programme of site re-assessment related