EHG6111 - Trial trenching - new house plot, Westfield, Thurso

A trial trenching evaluation was undertaken by Avon Archaeology (Highland) in 2023 in advance of groundworks for a new dwelling with access and associated facilities on land 180m south of West House, Westfield, Thurso. The evaluation was required to establish the presence or absence of significant buried archaeological deposits and features within the footprint of the proposed development area, in particular buried features, deposits or finds associated with a group of prehistoric funerary/mortuary monuments and a later Broch, all Scheduled Monuments, located nearby. A total of eight evaluation trenches were opened within the development area in accordance with an approved WSI. All the trenches were archaeologically sterile and each revealed a uniform and simple sequence of deposits comprising a thin topsoil that directly overlay the undisturbed natural substrate. No finds of any kind, either stratified or unstratified, were recovered. The evaluation trenches indicated that the site was archaeologically sterile - no significant archaeological deposits, features or finds were identified and no further archaeological mitigation was recommended. <1>