EHG5741 - Geophysical survey - Milton of Leys

A geophysical survey was carried out by GUARD in 1998-9 prior to planning consent for a housing development at Milton of Leys, Inverness. The survey was accompanied by a desk-based assessment and walkover survey (see EHG227) and followed by trial trenching (see EHG5742) and a total station theodolite survey. The site was subdivided into six individual survey areas, A to F, in a number of different locations. Areas A, B and C were located at the south-eastern extremities of the site and were composed of single 30m² survey grids situated in adjacent fields. Areas D, E and F were larger survey areas situated on the north-facing slope of the main part of the site and subdivided into a series of 30m² grids. All of the areas selected for geophysical survey were located away from zones of recent development and disturbance, and as far as possible, removed from modern services such as overhead high voltage power supplies, which would almost certainly have affected the results of the survey. Additionally, the survey areas selected reflect a compromise between the need to characterise, in geophysical terms, as many different areas of the site as possible and the desire to target areas of specific archaeological potential. The entire development at Milton of Leys has been subjected to intensive agricultural practices. As a result, many of the anomalies detected by geophysical survey were obscured or distorted by the smearing effect caused by plough drag. The archaeological reality may not be quite so nebulous as the geophysical effect that possible archaeological remains generate. It was almost impossible to differentiate between the magnetic effects resulting from the plough-truncated remains of subtle archaeological features and those arising from the small amounts of glacially derived igneous geological material that abound in the ploughsoil on the site. Many of the ephemeral features detected in this survey could be interpreted as the possible remains of past human activity, but such interpretations cannot be confirmed without excavation. <1>