EHG5829 - Watching brief - new house, Cairnurenan, Mulbuie

A watching brief was undertaken by Highland Archaeology Services in 2021 during the groundwork stages of development at Cairnurenan for a new house and associated services. The site is located at the SW end of the Black Isle to the NE of Muir of Ord and incorporates the remains of a large prehistoric passage-grave ring-cairn, Cairn Irenan, of probable Bronze Age date, which is a Scheduled Monument (SM3122). This final stage of archaeological fieldwork for the development included monitoring during topsoil stripping, the excavation of a service trench for the new build and the demolition of an existing croft house. It followed on from earlier stages of archaeological work including documentary research and a programme of standing building recording and intrusive trial trenching, the results of the latter being essentially negative (see EHG5525 and EHG5526). No significant archaeological deposits, features or finds were revealed during the course of the watching brief and no further archaeological work is recommended. <1>