EHG4130 - Trial Trenching - Stafford Court, Dornoch

A desk-based assessment and trial trenching evaluation were undertaken by Highland Archaeology Services and Archaeology North in 2012 to meet a planning condition on construction of houses at Stafford Court, Dornoch, Sutherland. The assessment identified the area of the site as part of the former town fields of Dornoch. The site covered an area of approximately 1,976m². Trial trenching was undertaken to provide the minimum 7% sample required (138.32m²). Five archaeological trial trenches were opened, to provide a good spread across the site and to include one box trench in the centre. Engineering test pits and percolation test pits were not observed in the field, but the results of these investigations were examined and they appeared to confirm the archaeological findings. Apart from box trench AT3, the trenches were dug to the width of the machine bucket, 1.8m rather than the 1.5m specified, but lengths were kept as proposed, so the total area exposed (170m²) exceeded the 138m² required, and constituted 8.6% of the site by area. No archaeological evidence was found during trial trenching. The geotechnical team could not attend site on 1 October, so the intended observation of geotechnical test pits during excavation was not possible. However, the following day, 2 October 2012, most of the site was stripped by machine down to c. 0.4m to 0.7m bgl, removing all topsoil and the upper parts of the underlying natural deposits. The resulting exposed surface was examined but no archaeological deposits or features were seen. <1>