EHG6381 - Walkover survey and Heritage Impact Assessment - proposed Mey BESS

A Heritage Impact Assessment was undertaken by AOC Archaeology Group in 2025 with regard to the proposed installation of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on land around Philips Mains, Mey, (hereafter referred to as “the Site” where appropriate), Caithness. The assessment considered the potential for the proposed development to result in direct impacts upon buried archaeological remains which may survive within the site, and the potential for impacts upon the setting of designated heritage assets in the surrounding 2km Study Area. Within the site the assessment established that there was likely a low potential for archaeological remains of early historic, medieval and modern date, a low potential for remains of prehistoric date, and a high potential for archaeological remains of post-medieval date. Post-medieval remains would likely relate to agricultural practices and would likely be of negligible to low importance. A programme of peat probing was undertaken across the site in January 2025 and revealed that western arm of the site preserves peat up to almost 3m depth. Deep peat deposits such as this have the potential to preserve paleoenvironmental proxies and the west of the Site is considered to have a High potential for the recovery of paleoenvironmental remains. Conversely the east of the Site was found to contain thin clay soils up to 0.1m depth and thus paleoenvironmental potential within the east of the Site is considered to be Low. The Proposed Development has been redesigned to avoid the identified areas of peat thus resulting in an overall reduced impact. Impacts on the settings of designated assets within 2km of the Site have also been considered as part of this assessment. It is considered that the Proposed Development would have a Neutral impact on the Scheduled Mey battery (Asset 1), the Category A Listed Castle of Mey (Asset 3) and associated Garden and Designed Landscape (Asset 2) and Category B Listed gate lodge (Asset 4). This is predominantly due to the screening effect of the designed landscape’s woodland and hedges, along with a belt of woodland along the A836 that intervenes between the Site and the designed landscape, and in the case of the Scheduled battery (Asset 1) intervening topography also screens views. Embedded mitigation within the Development Proposal design includes the installation of a hedgerow along the Site’s western and northeastern periphery, intervening with the Site and this asset cluster. No recommendations for further mitigation regarding setting impacts is thus recommended, however the final decision for any such requirements lies with the local planning authority and Historic Environment Scotland. The Proposed Development has the potential to have a high direct impact on any archaeological remains surviving at a sub-surface level. A programme of archaeological work will be required in advance of any development, as per the May 2023 pre-application advice issued by the Highland Council for the Proposed Development (Planning Reference 23/00635/PREMAJ). This could take the form of a geophysical survey or trial trench evaluation, or a combination thereof. The results of this would inform the need for any further works or mitigation. Any such requirements would be determined by the Highland Historic Environment Team (HET) as advisors to Highland Council on such matters. <1>