EHG1178 - Evaluation - Inverness Airport Access Road, Petty

SUAT were commissioned to undertake an evaluation on two sites affected by the proposed route of a new access road to Inverness Airport in 2004. The sites were three mounds known as Cnoc an t Sidhean and a row of crofts. Ten mechanically-dug trenches, each 50m in length and 1.8m wide, were excavated over and between the two mounds directly affected by the route of the new road. This revealed that the mounds were natural in origin and contained no archaeological deposits. Two pits cut into the natural contained modern finds. The site of the C18 crofts lay partly in forestry and partly in an adjacent field. Evaluation in the field, consisting of two trenches (trench 12 measured 50m x 1.8m and trench 13 measured 40m x 1.8m) failed to find any evidence of the crofts. In the wooded area the site of one previously recorded croft was further investigated which included limited excavation, consisting of eight sondages, on the clay bonded foundation walls of the croft remains. In addition passages were cut through thick bracken growth in an effort to identify further remains. A watching brief was to be conducted on both of the sites and the remainder of the proposed access route when sopil stripping and ground preparation was to take place. <1>