This week we have been out on Rannoch Moor exploring the archaeology of a bend in the River Ba, West of the A82 and East of the West Highland Way. The site features a farmstead with kailyard and pen, two shieling huts, an area of rig and furrow cultivation and a bloomery mound. Our excavations aim to identify the phasing of these features, and to better understand the use of this landscape, for subsistence and fuel, as the Little Ice Age and improvement changed societies relationships with their environments in the Early Modern period.
In the first few days of digging (interrupted by frequent storms!) we have opened up and excavated slots within the farmstead structure, shielings and bloomery mound, and test pits in the rig and furrow, kailyard and pen. In the farmstead structure we have recovered fragments of pottery including Staffordshire slipware and what may be Low Country redware, a copper-alloy shoe buckle, and a silver penny of Charles II within an ashy hearth deposit. In our bloomery trench we have excavated to natural and identified phasing in the deposition of slag, charcoal and ash and recovered samples for these.
We will be exploring the management of soils at the site, and how cultivatable soils developed through elemental and bulk density analysis on the site. We will explore diet and subistence through archaeo-botanical identification of bulk macro remains and phytoliths and fuel use through analysing charcoals.
We’ll be updating with more news from the dig team, our post-ex and writing up over the next couple of months.
This research has been funded by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Glasgow Archaeological Society, the Society of Post Medieval Archaeology, Rannoch Historical Society, and the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow. This programme of fieldwork is supported by Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and Stanford University Archaeology.
Thanks are owed to Amy Hellier, Kaitlyn Whitsitt, Astrid Hunter, Dr Scott McCreadie, Sophie Cathcart Rivett, Dr Cole Juckette, Dr Ian MacLellan for supporting the excavations.
By Dr Edward Stewart and Alexandria Parker-Banks
Readings
Stewart E., – Rannoch Surveys Article – https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2025.0721
MacLellan I., – Hunting Forest Management Article – https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2025.0720
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