EHG6133 - Watching brief - cable route, Reay

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken by Highland Archaeology Services in 2023 during the development of a new cable route at Reay, Caithness for SSE Networks. The project involved the excavation of a narrow L-shaped trench measuring between 0.4m – 1m in width, with a total length of 185m. The trench was excavated up to 0.35-0.6m in width and up to 1.2m in depth in order to facilitate the development of the laying of a 11kv cable on land to the east of the village. A test pit was also excavated at the west end of the cable route which exposed an existing buried cable, the pit measured 2.4m by 2.2m. Two features were exposed during fieldwork, a black, dense sandy deposit which was exposed in the section and a midden containing marine molluscs, animal bones and prehistoric pottery. Recommendations were made for post-excavation work including flotation and botanical analysis of material from the black, dense sandy deposit (feature 1) and the midden (feature 2). If suitable material is identified, it was recommended that AMS dates from each of the features are obtained. It was also recommended that specialist reports for the prehistoric pottery and marine molluscs are obtained. <1> Post-excavation work was subsequenlty undertaken. The dates obtained from the features were all Iron Age between 342BC and 327 AD. The pottery was of a type found at broch sites such as Nybster and Whitegate and at Wag of Forse. The limpets and periwinkles recovered were also comparable to those found at other Iron Age sites such as Howe in Orkney and Crosskirk in Caithness. <2>