EHG6293 - Excavation - Cabot Highlands, Castle Stuart Golf Championship Course development, Dalcross (PS4)

An archaeological ‘strip and record’ mitigation excavation (CH24PS4) was undertaken by Avon Archaeology (Highland) in 2023-4 in advance of preliminary development works for a new Championship Golf Course at Castle Stuart, Dalcross near Inverness. The mitigation-stage fieldwork was designed to fully characterise and record significant buried archaeological deposits, features and finds located in a specific part of the development area, designated Mitigation Area PS4, which had been identified during a preceding stage of evaluation trenching (see EHG5992). Strip and record excavation in Area PS4, recorded evidence of medieval agricultural activity in the area of the modern Lonnie farmstead. The excavation revealed a series of parallel boundary ditches broadly aligned NW to SE, which were interpreted to represent at least two phases of agricultural enclosure. Associated features included the remains of a possible kiln structure. The ditch fills produced pottery sherds and marine shell-midden deposits provisionally dated to the later medieval period. The archaeological deposits and features recorded in Mitigation Area PS4 indicating medieval settlement-related and agricultural activity, were considered to represent important new archaeological evidence that adds to our understanding of rural medieval settlement and activity on the Moray coast. Accordingly, it was recommended that a further and final stage of post-excavation analysis and reporting should be undertaken for selective evidence gathered in order to elucidate and confirm the chronology and character of the archaeological activity represented. Subject to the approval of Highland Council, the details, programme and resources for a final stage of post-site analysis and reporting work for evidence gathered in Mitigation Area PS4 would be set out in a Post-Excavation Research Design (PERD) for approval by Cabot Highlands LLP and Highland Council. <1>