EHG105 - Section recording - Smoo Cave, Durness

GUARD were contracted by Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise to carry out the archaeological investigation of an eroding shell midden in Smoo Cave, Sutherland, in 1992, prior to the construction of a protective wall. This work involved the cutting back, sampling and recording of the eroding section. This resulted in the identification of several occupation/activity horizons. The shell midden, the earliest phases of which apeared to be Iron Age, represented the latest phase of this activity. The earliest deposits, which were substantially lower than the present cave floor, may represent Mesolithic activity within the cave. There were several features which were present in the initial section in an extremely denuded state that did not survive a further trowelling, thus providing further evidence of the destructive power of the nearby river, the Allt Smoo. These ephemeral features included a cut pit, which may have been a posthole and the last remnants of a possible hearth. In order to accommodate the revetting wall, while at the same time removing as little material as possible, the section face was cut back on three planes. The investigation also brought to light a further shell midden located in a former cave some 50m to the north-west of Smoo Cave. <1> Published report. <2>