EHG5393 - Excavation - Hidden Bronze Age Landscape of Caithness Project

Excavation was carried out in 2015 on the site of a hut circle at Skaill, 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 site 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 four of the project concentrated on the excavation of almost two full quadrants (Trenches 4 and 5 - for Trenches 1-3 see EHG5392) of the hut circle. It was found that the core of the bank in Trench 4 was composed of burnt mound material and a number of internal featutes including postholes and an oval pit were also recorded. <1>