EHG6196 - Trial trenching - A9 dualling, Tomatin-Moy

A programme of archaeological trial trenching was undertaken by AOC Archaeology in 2022 ahead of the Tomatin to Moy section of the A9 Dualling Programme. Work was undertaken on available land along the scheme extending from just south of Tomatin (NGR 281142, 827460) northwards, ending at Creagan Bad Each (NGR 272298, 835880), a few kilometres to the north of Moy. The trenching was undertaken in twelve land parcels and comprised 269 interventions. These comprised 194 trenches and 75 trial pits which equated to 10,942.16m² of trenching, providing a 6% sample of the available area of 182566.89m² within the proposed scheme footprint. Archaeological features were identified within two land parcels and comprised two pits and four linear features in Land Parcel 1 (Tomatin Distillery, NGR 279787 829800) and two small sub-circular pits filled with fire waste in Land Parcel 10 (north of Dalmagarry, NGR 278507 832551). Samples from these features were processed and indicated a measure of disturbance and bioturbation in many of the deposits encountered in Land Parcel 1 and viable dating evidence from wood charcoal in the pits in Land Parcel 10. Further mitigation work to strip map and excavate an area of 20m around all the archaeological features in both Land Parcel 1 and 10 was recommended. Radiocarbon dating of the two pits in Land Parcel 10 was also recommended. <1>