EHG6397 - Watching brief - proposed poultry Farm, Kilravock

A programme of archaeological fieldwork, involving a strip and record excavation and the monitoring of new foundation trenches was undertaken by Avon Archaeology (Highland) in 2025 to mitigate the impact of topsoil stripping mistakenly undertaken without archaeological monitoring for the development of a new poultry unit at Milton of Kilravock Farm, Kilravock, Cawdor. The requirement for an archaeological watching brief during topsoil stripping was a Condition of planning consent and this programme of archaeological mitigation was developed and agreed after consultation with the Historic Environment Team at Highland Council. The mitigation fieldwork involved the removal of modern surfacing across a designated portion of the development site measuring c 40m x 28m, where it was judged that the survival of any archaeological deposits originally present was most likely. This was accompanied by a standard watching brief during the excavation of foundation trenches for the new poultry unit building. The removal of recent surfacing in the strip and record mitigation area revealed a variable but broadly uniform sandy gravel substrate that was entirely archaeologically sterile. Both of the new foundation trenches were also entirely archaeologically sterile. No significant archaeological deposits, features or finds were revealed in any of the mitigation areas and no further archaeological work was recommended. <1>