EHG5861 - Watching brief - new industrial units, Dornoch Business Park

A watching brief was undertaken by Highland Archaeology Services in 2021 during the development of Industrial Units at Plot 9, Dornoch Business Park. This followed an evaluation of this and other plots at Dornoch Business Park undertaken in 2006 by Rathmell Archaeology (see EHG1420). Fieldwork was undertaken in wet conditions. A single trench measuring approximately 24m by 16m was excavated, which incorporated the proposed building footprint, access and services. Topsoil varied in depth from around 0.6-0.8m, and comprised a largely homogenous grey-brown sandy soil with infrequent rounded stones and some shell. Only 3 features of potential archaeological interest were encountered. Feature 1 comprised a shallow spread of grey-brown mixed sand with frequent shells and less frequent flecks of charcoal with occasional well-worn animal bone fragments. A single small sherd of medieval green-glaze pottery was recovered from the edge of the spread. This feature was located at the western edge of the trench, with approximately 8.5 by 1.5m exposed within the trench amounting to a total area of 11m². With reference to both the evaluation and a watching brief of the neighbouring plots, this was interpreted as a buried cultivation layer. Feature 3 was of the same material in a small hollow. The remaining feature was a small post-hole square in plan but with a curved base, with no dateable evidence or cultural material. As the surviving area of the buried cultivation layer was limited and the sample size of bone, shell and charcoal fragments small, further in-depth analytical work is not justifiable for this site as the resulting data would not be sufficiently secure or reliable. However it was recommended that two AMS radio-carbon dates were obtained for the buried cultivation layer. The AMS date from one of the bone fragments within the buried cultivation layer provides a date of the early medieval period and the second dates to the middle of the medieval period. The difference in the two dates would seem to indicate that there was mixing of the soils during cultivation but does also demonstrate that there was activity in the vicinity prior to the founding of the Cathedral. These dates may also inform future archaeological investigations in the vicinity of the current development. <1>