EHG3369 - Excavation - West Borrodale (A830 improvements)

An archaeological excavation was undertaken by CFA Archaeology in 2005 to the east of Arisaig at Borrodale West in an area in which previous evaluation trenches had recorded a number of stone features as part of the A830 Loch nan Uamh to Arisaig road improvements (see EHG1373). An ‘L’ shaped trench measuring 70m east-west by 28m north-south at the east side and 18m north-south at the west side, was opened by machine. The total area was c.1620m², rather more than the 1400m² envisaged in the Mitigation Strategy Report. The excavations at Borrodale took place in both drier weather and on better drained land than those at Arisaig. None of the waterlogging or flooding problems associated with that site (see EHG2944) were present at Borrodale. The excavation area was within a well-drained grass meadow. Although the site had not been ploughed in living memory, the sections at the edges of the excavation area showed evidence of deep cultivation, possibly augmented with slopewash and soil creep from the higher ground to the north. There was however, no evidence in either plan or section for lazy beds or more substantial or formal linear rig and furrow agricultural remains. The excavation revealed a suite of truncated prehistoric remains, including 61 non-linear features, two clearance cairns and a series of linear features occupying an area of unusually fertile land. It was thought that the cairns may have pre-dated at least some of the ditches, which themselves post-dated at least some of the pits. The remains were thought to represent the truncated elements of a prehistoric settlement. Sites such as this were previously unknown in Lochaber so no immediate local comparisons can be made. Nevertheless, all of the recorded elements could be readily paralleled elsewhere. Further post excavation work was planned. <1> A post-excavation archive report was produced, combining work from West and East Borrodale. It was considered that none of the excavated pits would have been out of place in parts of Scotland more normally associated with such features. In form, and presumably in function, they were analogous. The prevalence of quartz over flint was not considered unusual in Atlantic Scotland and neither was the lack of pottery. The recognition that the quartz was in the main stratified whilst the flint was out of context may be significant but the sample of excavated features was small. It may be that in one period of pit digging, the features were more substantial than was usually the case and that these were associated with a local vein or beach quartz industry. None of the linear features could be related to the pits either by stratigraphy, fill characteristics, or by artefactual remains. Three ditch alignments were recorded and these appear to record at least two phases of strip cultivation, both of which remain undated. <2>