EHG4917 - DBA and Watching Brief - SSE Pipeline and Substation Works, Balmacara Square, Skye and Lochalsh

A watching brief was undertaken by West Coast Archaeological Services in 2015 in relation to the placement of a new electric connection by SSE, comprising underground cables and the footing for a substation, through the centre of the village at Balmacara Square. Due to the modern disturbance of the development site during previous utilities work and recent development of the north-east end of the route for new houses, the area proved to have limited potential for archaeological survival. Some remnants of archaeology – namely the dairy footing and the remnants of a ditch – not disturbed by the earlier site clearance in the north-east area of the development were removed without monitoring. There was no indication of any intact archaeology during the monitoring of the trenches for the cables and for the substation. The cable trench was excavated into earlier trenches used for services relating to the street lighting, BT lines, and water mains, and as a result the stratigraphy was completely disturbed and also represented imported materials used for the backfill. The footing for the substation contained a thin lens of topsoil over a deposit of very mixed and clearly redeposited material. The finds of plastic Styrofoam at the interface between the natural and the redeposited layer indicate that the disturbance must have occurred within the last 50 years. <1>