EHG6183 - Excavation - moated site, Inchnadamph

As part of the Assynt Fire and Water Project, an excavation was undertaken by AOC Archaeology Group in 2013 to investigate the moated enclosure at Inchnadamph. Excavation comprised a slot trench placed over the ditch and the exterior bank in the east area of the site, close to one of the probable entrances. The ditch was found to be a broad U-shape in profile, c1.5m deep with a flat base, with the fill largely derived from the erosion of the outer bank. A large number of artefacts were recovered from the upper deposits, derived mainly from the eroded bank outside the site, and included ceramics similar to Hebridean Craggan Ware, a fragment of a disc-shaped rotary quern, a folding knife and a large quantity of iron working slag, including furnace base cakes. A post-medieval date was considered probable for the majority of the artefacts. Waterlogged deposits were encountered at the base of the ditch. Radiocarbon dates were obtained from samples taken from the upper and basal deposits of the ditch: these were statistically inseparable and indicate activity between the mid-15th and mid-17th century AD. <1>