EHG5389 - Walkover and topographic surveys - Hidden Bronze Age Landscape of Caithness Project

Walkover and topographic surveys were carried out in 2015 on 52 sites in Caithness targeted as part of the 'Hidden Bronze Age Landscape of Caithness Project' undertaken by AOC Archaeology Group and members of the Castletown Heritage Society with local volunteers. The sites had been identified in LiDAR data gathered by AOC Archaeology in 2011 as part of the mitigation for the visual impact on the archaeological landscape associated with the proposed Baillie Hill windfarm. The project ran as a series of four week long field schools training volunteers in techniques of field survey, systematic soil sampling and targeted excavation. Fieldwork in week one of the fieldschool (22-27/06/2015) focussed on using LiDAR data in the field, use of GPS to create simple maps of archaeological sites and ground-truthing sites through LiDAR. In week two (13-18/07/2015) participants learned how to create accurate plans using manual taped offset and plane table survey and total station and GPS surveys. A total of 52 sites were visited during the targeted walkover and topographic survey of the LiDAR study area. The most common site type recorded were hut circles, with 31 examples being recorded. Further sites recorded were cairns and cairn fields along with burnt mounds and boundary banks. Several smaller regions within the study area were visited, comprising those areas with the densest concentrations of previously unrecorded monuments. These regions included the area around Broubster, Allt Torigil, Shebster, Achnabust and Lieurary. This survey represents the first systematic collation of field evidence for hut-circles for an area of Caithness, and contributes greatly to our knowledge of the Bronze Age settlement landscape of the county. The recurrent patterns of survival, typically in the form of clusters of hut-circles located around the fringes of medieval and post-medieval ploughing. The complex of Bronze Age monuments of Broubster are particularly illustrative: upstanding remains are only obvious to the field surveyor in those areas outside the extents of later agriculture, although LiDAR demonstrates the survival of much earlier structures beneath historic ploughing and ridge and furrow. <1>