EHG3531 - Trial trenching - Braes of Conon, Conon Bridge

Headland Archaeology Ltd undertook an evaluation in 2010 at the site of a proposed housing development at Braes of Conon, Conon Bridge in order to test the archaeological potential of the area that would be impacted on by the development. A desk-based assessment was undertaken prior to fieldwork to understand the archaeological background of the site and to help to locate trenches on any potential areas of interest. The work was commissioned by Tulloch Homes Ltd. The total area available for evaluation was 136880m² and 5% of this was sampled by trial trenching. This equated to 3222m of linear trenching 2m wide. A total of forty five trenches were machine excavated across the development area. The trenches ranged in length from 50m to 200m, and had on average 0.3 ‐ 0.4 m of plough‐soil overlying the natural geology which was very mixed across the site. The trenching identified a low density of features across the site. Of these six features, all located in the western half of the site, were identified as having archaeological potential. In particular a possible trough similar to that found associated with burnt mounds was identified. The remaining features recorded during the evaluation appear to be of natural origin or of relatively recent antiquity containing finds dating to the 19th century and later. <1>