EHG5977 - DBA and walkover survey - proposed Switching Station, Gills Bay

A desk-based assessment and walkover survey were carried out by CFA Archaeology in 2014 in advance of a proposed switching station near Philips Mains, Gills Bay, Caithness. The survey work was carried out in order to: locate all visible cultural heritage sites, monuments, and landscape features, both those identified during the desk-based assessment and any previously unrecognised, and to record their character, extent, and condition; identify areas with the potential to contain unrecorded, buried archaeological remains, taking into account factors such as topography, geomorphology, and ground conditions; and inform the appraisal of the potential impacts of the Proposed Development on heritage assets. Site visits were also made to key receptors in the Outer Study Area in March 2014, to appraise whether the proposals would affect their settings. <1> The information gathered from the 2014 assessment and site visits was considered by Ramboll in 2021 to remain valid to assess the impact of the Proposed Development in a re-submitted environmental appraisal and therefore no additional field survey was carried out. However, during the the desk-based assessment re-appraisal information sources checked during the original project work were re-visited. Taking into account the recorded archaeological remains known in the surrounding area and the presence of peat deposits on the Site, the evidence suggested that there was a low to medium potential for further archaeological discoveries in this locale, including within the farmland in the southern part of the Site. In the northern part of the Site, which is currently under commercial forestry, ploughing and drainage works as well as planting and subsequent tree root growth was likely to have disturbed or destroyed the integrity of any surviving buried archaeological deposits that might formerly have been, or may still be, present. Therefore, it was considered that the potential for hitherto undisturbed buried archaeological remains to survive in the current forested area was negligible to low. It was also predicted that there would be potential indirect impacts during operation of the Proposed Development of no more than of low magnitude on the setting of two heritage assets within 3 km of the Site. <2>