EHG288 - Easter Galcantray, Cawdor

Between 1984 and 1990 the late G D B Jones and C M Daniels from the Universites of Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne respectively undertook excavation at four large rectilinear cropmark sites, including Easter Galcantray. This work successfully identified discrete phases of activity dating from the Neolithic through to historic times. It was the excavators' belief that the rectilinear enclosures had been Roman military fortifications relating to the Agricolan advance into north-eastern Scotland. In 1984 aerial survey by the Moray Aerial Survey Group focused on an area close to the western end of the Moray littoral, between the towns of Forres and Inverness. Within this corridor Jones and Keillar (1985) documented a variety of cropmarks, but placed particular emphases on an apparent concentration of sites found between Cawdor and Easter Galcantray. In this area they documented several probably later prehistoric settlements, which they suggested may have been contemporary with an unexcavated fort found above Dallaschyle Wood. Closer to the River Nairn, Jones and Keillar noted the presence of a peculiar cropmark site; an enclosure with a rounded south-western corner, and a centrally placed entrance on its southern side. After the initial identification of the enclosure at Easter Galcantray a programme of excavation was undertaken with the aim of defining the function and date of the site. <1>