EHG6332 - Trial trenching - housing development, Tornagrain Phase 2c

An trial trenching evaluation was carried out by AOC Archaeology Group in 2024 at Tornagrain Inverness-shire, in advance of the construction of new housing and associated infrastructure. The evaluation was required as previous archaeological works have identified that there was high potential for prehistoric archaeological remains to survive. Fieldwork was carried out between 2nd and 10th September 2024. A 10% archaeological trial trenching evaluation was required to evaluate the archaeological potential of the site. The southern part of the Phase 2c area had been previously evaluated in 2015 (see EHG5406), so only the northern 12,000m² was subject to trenching. Fourteen trenches and an expanded area around Trench 9 covering 1,420m² were excavated to cover 12% of the northern part of the Site. Three targeted excavation areas were also excavated across the locations of features discovered during the 2015 evaluation in order to establish the extent of the areas of archaeological interest. An area measuring 3,300m² (Trench 15/16) was excavated in the location of prehistoric features in previous Trenches 4, 6 and 8 and a c. 20m x 20m was excavated over the site of ironworking feature [400] in previous Trench 4. The archaeological work recorded archaeological remains in the form of pits and post holes, typical of the features found at sites of prehistoric settlement. The small finds assemblage of prehistoric pottery found in two of the excavated features serve to further confirm this conclusion. The potential for further archaeological remains to be present on the site was thought to be low and no further archaeological mitigation for Phase 2c was recommended. However, given the samples and finds recovered from this current phase of works along with those since the first phase of evaluation in 2012 it was recommended that a Post Excavation Research Design (PERD) should be prepared. This programme of post-excavation analysis would primarily consist processing of the environmental samples to recover suitable charred material for a limited programme of radiocarbon dating and artefacts analysis. The radiocarbon dating would be targeted to features with artefacts as none of the works completed identified structures. <1>