EHG959 - Trial trenching - proposed outdoor activities building, North Bay, Raasay

An archaeological evaluation including a limited desk-based search of the available archives, a walkover survey and trial trench excavations were undertaken by Archaeological and Ancient Landscape Survey in 2003 of the proposed site of an outdoor activities building at North Bay, Raasay. The desk-based search demonstrated that 3 archaeological sites lay within a 100m radius of the proposed site and that trial excavations had been carried out by CFA, in 1997, some 100 metres to the south of the proposed site. The walkover survey revealed little other than two low earthwork features (mounds) and a break in slope, with associated platform, close to the west corner of the site. Five trenches (A-E) amounting to a total of 182m², 5% of the total development, were examined for buried archaeology. All the trenches were machine excavated down to the bottom of the plough soil. The trenches revealed an interesting variety of features, including: an extensivee mid 20th C. rubbish dump, a number of mid 20th C. rubbish pits, a pig burial, a cow burial and a possible early prehistoric occupation site. <1>