EHG27 - DBA and Walkover Survey - Loch Poll (part) HE Scheme

A rapid walkover survey of Loch Poll was carried out November 28th and 29th, 1998, concentrating on the shorelines ad the areas affected by the access and construction of a proposed scheme. Records held by Highland Council Archaeology Service in Inverness and local records were consulted for additional information and historical background. The first aim was to locate any archaeological sites potentially endangered by the construction of temporary access routes or by any alterations to the landscape caused by construction work on the dams, e.g. borrow pits or quarries, and to recommend which routes could be taken by these access tracks and which areas could be exploited for material with minimum impact on the archaeological record. The whole area of the proposed scheme is on Lewisian Gneiss, and the landscape is one of rounded knolls and ridges of bare, fissured rock and innumerable small lochs. The predominant soil is peat, which has formed to some depth in the hollows between the knolls and ridges which are not actually flodded, and there are peaty soils supporting heather and bog myrtle on the better drained slopes. At the loch shores at some favourable locations are stands of birch and rowan. <1>