EHG52 - Walkover Survey - Rhifail, Strathnaver

The Rhifail WGS survey area covers 20 ha of land at Rhifail in Strath Navar, 13 km south of Bettyhill. The survey area is on the floor of the Strath Navar; it is topographically complex with well drained steep-sided knolls between minor stream channels and areas of flat bog. The land is currently used as rough pasture for livestock and there are areas of young birch woodland, particularly on the knolls on the west side of the survey area. Documentary sources were consulted before fieldwork. The survey area was systematically walked by a team of two archaeologists and all features of archaeological interest were identified and described. Where necessary the archaeological features were located using a Total Station working on an arbitrary grid tied into local mapped reference points. Conditions for the survey were generally good with low vegetation except in areas of dense young birch trees. Snow cover was generally thin except in areas of older drifted snow which was over 0.5 m deep and totally obscured the ground surface. <1>