EHG5812 - Excavation - new housing and retail, Church Street, Inverness

An archaeological evaluation and excavation were undertaken by AOC Archaeology Group in 2020-21 prior to the construction of 10 flats and ground floor retail space at 99 Church Street, Inverness. The requirement arose because the development site is located within the medieval town core of Inverness, an area of rich archaeological potential. Following the demolition of the historic building on site, the archaeological evaluation and subsequent excavation was carried out between 16th November 2020 and 19th January 2021, which revealed medieval structures, complex deeply stratified deposits, and associated artefacts. The results were grouped into three approximate phases of occupation. Phase 1 represented a period of post-medieval settlement, dominated by a row of up to five substantial stone buildings. Phase 2 was represented by a medieval wattle and daub structure, which had been destroyed by fire. Phase 3 contained earlier medieval settlement, including a stone wall and layers of structural debris. An extensive artefact and ecofact assemblage, including iron-smithing debris, medieval ceramics and artefacts, animal bone, and well-preserved burnt wood timbers, was recovered during the excavation. A programme of post-excavation analyses is required in order to interpret the chronology and activities on the site. <1> Subsequent post-excavation analysis was carried out which indicated five phases of activity representing probable continuous occupation from the 11th century up to the modern buildings. The earliest phase on site dated to the mid-11th to early 13th century and provided insight into the nature of settlement in the area at around the time the burgh was first established. Phase 2 comprised the main medieval occupation in the 13th-14th centuries with the presence of a wattle and daub structure that was burnt down. Later occupation on the site was evidenced by a blacksmithing area (Phase 3a) and other later medieval (possibly 15th-century) features (Phase 3b), remnants of early post-medieval features and structures (Phase 4), and finally the late-18th- and 19th-century structures built by Peter Anderson (Phase 5). The artefacts recovered from the site provided an insight into the general domestic life of the inhabitants, ranging from the pricket candlesticks used to light their dwelling to the bone pin and ear scoop/tweezers used for personal dress and hygiene and the hundreds of ceramic sherds representing various jugs and other vessels. A deposit of metalworking waste also revealed that the site saw use as a blacksmith’s workshop sometime between the 15th-18th centuries. The ecofacts (charred plant and charcoal remains as well as animal bones and shellfish) showed that the economy on the site remained fairly consistent across the centuries, with people making use of cattle, sheep/goats, horses and pigs and using oats as the main cereal crop alongside various other wild and domestic plant resources. The site at Church Street makes an important addition to the other known medieval remains at Castle Street and Raining’s Stairs, Inverness, showing that building traditions in Inverness developed in a similar manner to other medieval burghs, such as Perth, Aberdeen and Cromarty. <2>