EHG3792 - Excavation - Balblair Wood, Beauly

An archaeological excavation was undertaken by Northlight Heritage in August 2012 ahead of the proposed development of an access road to a new substation facility at Wester Balblair, near Beauly, Highland. The proposed route of the access road passes through Balblair Woods, which is known to contain a large number of possible prehistoric features, primarily hut-circles and cairns. Five features which had been previously identified by survey and investigated through evaluation were excavated although one of these, a putative cairn, was found to be a natural mound. The four remaining features were comprised of a low dyke or bank, a small round cairn, a large amorphous cairn and a sub-oval enclosure defined by a stone and turf bank. Artefacts recovered during the excavation of these features along with several associated pits included a fragment of a possible copper alloy pin, prehistoric pottery and struck lithics. An additional phase of work, conducted in July 2013, identified and recorded a low stone bank during the construction of an access track. <1>