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MHG17488 - Bronze Age gully, The House of Rosskeen

Summary

Several small sherds of combed beaker pottery were found in silts sealing a gully that may have revetted a building.

Type and Period (3)

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Full Description

NH66NE 45 6962 6952

Several small sherds of combed beaker pottery were found in silts sealing a gully that may have revetted a building. Finds made during archaeological supervision of the topsoil strip for the Dingwall - Invergordon British Gas pipeline. Sponsor: British Gas
J Wordsworth 1993 <1>

During observation on the Dingwall to Invergordon pipeline, at the base of the slope to The House of Rosskeen, and just above the low terrace running E from the Rosskeen Burn was the remains of a structure. A series of silts had formed at the base of the hill some containing flecks of charcoal, small fragments of beaker pottery and good quality flint fragments. They sealed a sequence of pit and gullies defining an area c8m in diameter. The deposit was too extensive to sample in total and 3 trenches were cut across the slope. At the back of the slope a gulley nearly 1m deep was revealed with a diameter of c0.5m. There was a possible slot 0.4m wide with flat stones set vertically on the surface of the primary gravel fills. The secondary infill was a charcoal‐rich silt. There was some suggestion that the gulley/slot features observed in all three trenches at the break of slope were curving and discontinuous.
At the front of this area was a gulley 2.75m by 0.5m wide without obvious packing or stones running approximately N/S. Adjacent was a gulley 1.25m by 0.3m wide aligned NE/SW and with cobble‐size stones 50mm av. Diameter.
The remains here seem to mark the remains of a beaker-period structure with a probable hearth, posts and a rather nebulous group of gullies that could have formed some sort of revetting against the hill slope behind. The fills do not suggest these were used for drainage and are more likely to have held timbers. <2>

GIS position adjusted based on updated information received from Jonathan Wordworth. <3>

Sources/Archives (3)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 6955 6943 (30m by 30m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NH66NE
Geographical Area	ROSS AND CROMARTY
Civil Parish	ROSSKEEN

Finds (2)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Investigations/Events (1)

External Links (1)