EHG6347 - Excavation - 3Green & 16Green, Cabot Highlands, Castle Stuart Golf Course

Two areas of archaeological ‘strip and record’ mitigation excavations (CH24M3G and CH24M16G) were undertaken by Avon Archaeology (Highland) in 2024 on behalf of Cabot Highlands LLP in accordance with the requirements of Highland Council planning consents 15/03626/FUL and 19/01446/PAN, in areas directly adjacent to Castle Stuart, in advance of preliminary development works for the new Championship Golf Course. This stage of mitigation fieldwork was designed to fully characterise and record buried archaeological deposits, features and finds located in the footprint of Golf Holes 3 Green and 16 Green, in areas where significant buried archaeological remains had been identified during a preceding stage of evaluation trenching (see EHG5992). A subsequent stage of watching brief was undertaken to identify and record archaeological deposits and features revealed by a stormwater drainage trench (see EHG6348). Mitigation excavation in Area 3 Green recorded extensive and shallowly buried remains interpreted to reflect an earlier phase of post-medieval horticulture and later features interpreted to represent elements of a formal pleasure garden. Elements associated with the latter included the remains of a substantial boundary wall and a series of aligned large and small planting pits, plus part of an inner enclosure defined by a rectilinear earth bank. The arrangement of features associated with the later formal gardens accorded well with a plan of the site drawn up in 1808. Finds from Area 3 Green principally consisted of a very small assemblage of post-medieval pottery sherds. Strip and record excavation in the second of the two mitigation areas, Area 16 Green, recorded a series of features interpreted to reflect prehistoric and later medieval activity. The prehistoric features consisted of a small number of pits and postholes that were provisionally dated by a large collection of decorated pottery to the later Neolithic/Early Bronze Age periods. Medieval activity was confined to a single ditch and a pair of shallow gullies, which produced a handful of glazed medieval pottery sherds and possibly reflected two sides of a small enclosure. The archaeological deposits and features recorded in Mitigation Areas 3 Green and 16 Green indicated phases of prehistoric, medieval and post medieval activity on the site of varying intensity and importance. The evidence gathered relating to the construction and use of a large enclosed post-medieval garden area some time before 1808 (and very likely before 1748) was considered to be of particular significance and provides the first archaeological evidence to elucidate the arrangement of the gardens and how they were utilised. Accordingly, it was recommended that a further and final stage of post excavation analysis and reporting is undertaken for selective evidence gathered in each of the mitigation areas in order to elucidate the chronology and character of the various phases of archaeological activity represented. The details, programme and resources for a final stage of post-site analysis and reporting work for evidence gathered in Mitigation Areas 3 Green and 16 Green would be set out in a Post-Excavation Research Design (PERD) for approval by Cabot Highlands LLP and Highland Council. <1>