Dunragit is a small unassuming village on the route of the A75 in Dumfries and Galloway. But it was not always so. The surrounding fields contain a wealth of prehistoric archaeology unrivalled in south-west Scotland. Previous investigations have revealed an enormous ceremonial complex of timber circles and avenues and an artificial mound dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. When a bypass around Dunragit village was proposed, it was therefore important to properly investigate and record any archaeology that lay along the route. 

Transport Scotland therefore brought in GUARD Archaeology to investigate in advance of construction. The excavations took around 19 months and revealed archaeology spanning some eight millennia, from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age period. GUARD Archaeology subsequently undertook a comprehensive programme of specialist analyses of the evidence recovered during the excavations in order to bring the results to publication.

The results are now published as a short booklet and as a more comprehensive monograph, each setting out what the GUARD Archaeologists discovered. The investigations uncovered a range of prehistoric archaeology including the earliest known house in south-west Scotland dating to the Mesolithic period, as well as Neolithic ceremonial structures, two Bronze Age cemeteries and an Iron Age village.

The remains of a Mesolithic hut were discovered on the edge of a former estuary which existed here throughout prehistory. Radiocarbon dates recovered from the Mesolithic hut revealed that this structure dates to around 6800 BC with a nearby hearth dating as early as 7800 BC showing that humans had revisited this location on more than one occasion during this period after the last Ice Age, when humans first began to resettle Scotland. Over 17,000 Mesolithic flint microliths and knapping waste were recovered, indicating that this settlement was a focus of Mesolithic. The evidence suggests that this location, on a coastal fringe, was probably deliberately chosen so that its inhabitants could exploit readily available resources of fish and shellfish seaward and hunting grounds in the hinterland.

Part of the new bypass extended across a gravel ridge, the remnants of a raised beach with views across the lower-lying former estuary and Luce Bay further south. Along this ridge the GUARD Archaeologists discovered a line of early Neolithic post-holes dating to c. 3,800 BC and extending directly in the direction of the artificial hill, Droughduil Mound. This suggests that the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age ceremonial complex extend as much as 2.5 km across the landscape. This suggests that at one time Dunragit was a centre of ceremonial activity perhaps as significant once as other ceremonial clusters such as the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney, Kilmartin Glen in Argyll and Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

Over 2000 years later, people were burying their dead on this same ridge. Included in these burials were high status objects such as necklaces and bracelets made of jet from Whitby on the north Yorkshire coast and elaborately decorated pots.

Almost forty cremation burials were also uncovered in another Bronze Age cemetery that was clustered around several earth barrows. Analyses of the remains revealed that there were two populations represented within this cemetery with one set of cremations dating to around 2000 BC and a later group dating to around 1500 BC. This tells us that this landscape was first used for ceremonies in the early Neolithic, to be followed almost two thousand years later by a series of cemeteries. Is it coincidence that people reused this location over the millennia? Or is this evidence of a collective ancestral memory of past uses of the Dunragit landscape?

Around the time that people were cremating their dead on the ridge, the same populations were using the lower lying parts of the landscape in a different way. Here a series of ten burnt mounds were discovered dating to the early and later Bronze Age. These monuments, sited close to a burn, were where pits were dug to hold water. Stones were heated and flung in to boil the water. In time, after repeated use, these stones became strewn around the pits forming a mound, hence their recognition as ‘burnt mounds’. Theories of their function include cooking, bathing, saunas, brewing and hide-working.

Another major discovery along the bypass route was an Iron Age village, where the remains of up to eight roundhouses were revealed. This settlement was occupied from around the later second century BC until the late first century AD. A wide range of artefacts were recovered, including bronze and iron brooches, metalworking debris, a leather working knife and a variety of cereal grains demonstrating that the community here possessed a much wider skillset than most other contemporary settlements in Galloway, and was perhaps a place of innovation and the sharing of ideas. The inhabitants were well-connected too; one of the brooches recovered during the excavation was a Romano-British type of bronze fibula from southern England, one of only two ever found in Scotland.

‘I am delighted that members of the public will have the opportunity to learn more about the lives of past generations who lived in the area. The excavations at Dunragit uncovered a depth of prehistoric archaeology spanning eight millennia, revealing the prehistoric heart of Galloway,’ said Warren Bailie, GUARD Archaeology Operations Director, who led the excavations.

The archaeological excavations and subsequent analyses were funded by Transport Scotland.

The finds will be deposited in accordance with Scottish legal requirements and will be allocated to a museum with the appropriate knowledge and expertise following recommendations from the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel.

Both the Monograph and Booklet, Dunragit, the Prehistoric Heart of Galloway by Warren Bailie, are freely available to download from the Dunragit Blog

Newly published research reveals how GUARD Archaeologists discovered evidence of inhabitation of St Kilda over two thousand years ago.

Archaeological investigations were carried out by GUARD Archaeology between 2017 and 2019 on St Kilda as part of the development and refurbishment of the MOD base. This included the largest archaeological excavation ever undertaken on the island, which revealed traces of inhabitation of St Kilda during the Iron Age.

St Kilda, a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site, is an island group that is situated 64 km west of the Outer Hebrides. The islands are all that remain of an eroded volcano that was active during plate tectonic movements and the creation of the North Atlantic Ocean c. 55 million years ago. The excavations were located in the south-west of the main island of Hirta overlooking Village Bay.

Radiocarbon dating of carbonised food remains adhering to sherds of pottery that had been washed into a stone channel indicates intensive inhabitation nearby at some point between the early part of the fourth century BC to almost the end of the first century BC. The majority of the pottery recovered dates from the Iron Age, although a sherd of a possible early Bronze Age Beaker and two sherds of medieval pottery were also found. The pottery assemblage demonstrates the land in the vicinity of the excavated area was subject to occupation from at least the Bronze Age.

‘The recent archaeological work has revealed that the eastern end of Village Bay on St Kilda was occupied fairly intensively during the Iron Age period, although no house structures were found,’ said Alan Hunter Blair, who directed the excavations. ‘The presence of large quantities of Iron Age pottery across the site suggests settlement must have existed nearby.’

‘One of the most significant problems facing archaeologists working on St Kilda is that earlier buildings were dismantled and cleared away in order to build new ones using the old stone as a building resource,’ added Alan Hunter Blair. ‘Stone was also cleared, including that in burial mounds to increase the available cultivation area, leaving little trace of what may have been there before. The fact that any archaeological remains survived at all on the recent investigated area is remarkable given the location of the site on extensively used and landscaped ground. The remote island group of St Kilda has not been immune from change, but understanding what is left, allows us to understand the lives of its past inhabitants in a little more detail.’

The archaeological work on St Kilda was commissioned by QinetiQ working on behalf of the MOD. ARO42: Hirta, St Kilda by Alan Hunter Blair is freely available to download from the ARO website – Archaeology Reports Online.

Over the last few weeks, we have been preparing for the safe restoration of our full archaeological services, particularly archaeological fieldwork such as watching briefs, evaluations and excavations. We are pleased to state that we have now restored archaeological teams of GUARD Archaeologists at a number of sites that had been closed during the lockdown. We have also begun to provide archaeologists for new sites.

GUARD Archaeology Ltd takes the COVID-19 Pandemic very seriously and is naturally concerned about its potential impact on staff and members of the public we come into contact with. For this reason, and crucial for the restoration of our archaeological field services, we have prepared a Safe System of Work that follows Scottish Government advice as well as that from the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and Prospect.

Under this system, no sites will resume operations until Senior management has signed off the updated Risk Assessment Method Statement for that site to demonstrate that the relevant measures are in place. Each member of staff has a legal duty under Health and Safety legislation to observe these rules. And we work closely with our clients to ensure that our safe system of working adheres to their own measures.

All staff whether on site or in our offices follow up-to-date advice from the Scottish Government. Our Safe System of Work covers appropriate measures for social distancing, PPE, cleaning and disinfection, use of site welfare facilities, travel, overnight accommodation, emergency procedures, mental health, cover arrangements and contact tracing. Furthermore, our Safe System of Work will be updated and amended in line with COVID-19 measures from the Scottish Government, in line with the phased route map for moving out of lockdown.

If you require any of our services, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

We hope you keep well and look forward to working with you again in the future.

GUARD Archaeology Ltd

Due to the unprecedented situation, and adhering to the UK and Scottish Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have decided to temporarily shut down all our fieldwork operations for the foreseeable future.

While this is by no means an easy decision to take, at the heart of our company is the ethos that archaeology is a public benefit. That it is good for people. This same ethos lies behind our decision to temporarily shut down all our fieldwork operations and our offices.

As our governments have stated, the single most important action we can take is to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives. When we reduce our day-to-day contact with other people, we reduce the spread of infection.

This does not mean, however, that we cannot provide all our archaeological services.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been preparing for such a situation where our staff are required to work from home. This means that GUARD Archaeology are still operating desk-based services should you require any support over the period of quarantine.

These services include:

• Desk-based Assessments
• Environmental Impact Assessments
• Written Schemes of Investigation
• Post-excavation Reports
• Archaeological Graphics
• Publication Reports

If you require any of these services, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

We hope you keep well and look forward to working with you again in the future.

GUARD Archaeology Ltd

GUARD Archaeology Limited is the latest business in Scotland to become employee-owned, with 32 permanent members of staff given a stake in the business. 

Formerly part of Glasgow University, GUARD Archaeology started trading as an independent company in January 2011, owned by eleven employee shareholders. The majority shareholders wanted to plan for their eventual exit by considering succession options early.  They were looking for a solution that would allow them to step back but at the same time create an equitable and sustainable structure for the company going forward.

Commenting, John Atkinson, director at GUARD Archaeology, said: “The matter of succession had originally been in the back of our minds as something we would need to consider eventually, however, when we started exploring employee ownership as a potential solution, we were so sold on the benefits that we decided to make the transition sooner rather than later.”

Ronan Toolis, director at GUARD Archaeology, added: “The transition to an Employee Ownership Trust strengthens the long-term future of our company, and by retaining employee ownership we are maintaining the original ethos of the company.”

GUARD Archaeology was owned by several shareholders who all worked in the business, so it was important to staff that the company wasn’t sold to a single buyer or that control of the company was moved out of Scotland where the bulk of GUARD Archaeology’s work is undertaken.  Employee ownership is an excellent business model which benefits everyone. The previous majority shareholders will continue with their day to day roles in the business for as long as is required, with the knowledge that the future is taken care of, while the rest of the employees are given a stake in the business and a role in how it is run.  This will hopefully increase job satisfaction and productivity whilst ensuring That GUARD Archaeology continues to deliver a high quality service.

John Atkinson continued: “Protecting jobs was also an extremely important factor in our decision. Many employees have been with the business for a long time and have played a vital role in its success. Moving into employee ownership gives the opportunity for job security to everyone who works here and enables them to have collective control of their future.  The staff are very excited about the opportunities it will bring for the future growth of the business.”

An Employee Ownership Trust has been formed and holds 100% of the shares on behalf of the employees.  The transition to employee ownership was supported by Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS), with the process managed by 4-consulting, legal services by Blackadders LLP, and accountancy services by RJ Hart.

Head of Co-operative Development Scotland, Clare Alexander, added: “The majority shareholders wanted a solution that would enable them to manage their succession long term, whilst ensuring that jobs were rooted in the local area and the original ethos of the company was retained. The move to employee ownership solves these issues, while bringing a host of additional benefits for all parties in the deal.”

Statistics demonstrate that employee-owned businesses consistently outperform their non EO counterparts in terms of higher levels of profitability, increased productivity brought about by higher levels of engagement and enhanced employee wellbeing, as well as improved business resilience during times of recession. Within Scotland, there are now around 110 employee-owned companies operating, with approximately 7,500 employee-owners generating a combined turnover of around £950 million. 

New insights into Highland life immediately before the Sutherland clearances of the early nineteenth century, have just been published in Archaeology Reports Online.

The investigations at Wilkhouse in Sutherland, led by GUARD Archaeology, were centred upon an eighteenth-century drovers’ inn and its neighbouring buildings. The evidence reveals a place pivotal to the local economy, where the continuity of settlement within the Highlands was in the process of developing into modernity before being cut short by the clearances instigated by the Sutherland Estate.

‘We revealed evidence of inhabitation here over a long period,’ said GUARD Archaeologist Warren Bailie, who directed the excavation. ‘The stone foundations of an earlier structure were found under the north-east gable of the inn while the coin assemblage testifies to the long-term use of the drove road at least as far back as the late sixteenth century. Earlier antiquarian finds, nearby, indicate occupation in the Norse, Pictish and Iron Age periods. The excavation also found a buried Neolithic occupation layer below one of the inn’s outbuildings.

The inn at Wilkhouse was a statement of modernity and affluence when built in the eighteenth century. It was constructed with harled stones, lime mortar bonding, glass windows, double chimneys and a slate roof. The level of investment suggests that there was ample passing trade to warrant the spend and was very much in contrast to many other drovers’ inns in Scotland, which were often a longhouse built of drystone with wooden shuttered windows, low walls, central hearths set on the floor and a turf or thatched roof.

The process of change also brought about its demise. The roadway was moved up the hillside and out of sight. Competition from newer inns in Brora and Helmsdale would have been damaging. However, underlying these lay the demands of the Sutherland Estate. The Kintradwell estate, recently subsumed again into Sutherland ownership after a period in the hands of the Gordons of Carroll, was cleared of its people in 1819. The inn was not be spared and by the coming of the railway in 1870 had sank into obscurity and was little more than a ruin.

‘A revealing description of Wilkhouse Inn in 1802 written by the Rev Donald Sage gives a picture of what was lost when the inn was forcibly closed in the name of improvement’, said Donald Adamson:

“We stopped for refreshment at an inn below Kintradwell, called Wilk-house, which stood close by the shore. This Highland hostelry, with its host Robert Gordon and his bustling, talkative wife, were closely associated with my early years, comprehending those of my attendance at school and college. The parlour, the general rendezvous for all comers of every sort and size, had two windows, one in front and another in the gable, and the floor of the room had, according to the prevailing code of cleanliness, about half an inch of sand upon it in lieu of carpeting. As we alighted before the door we were received by Robert “Wilkhouse” or “Rob tighe na faochaig” as he was usually called, with many bows indicative of welcome, whilst his bustling helpmeet repeated the same protestations of welcome on our crossing the threshold. We dined heartily on cold meat, eggs, new cheese, and milk. “Tam,” our attendant, was not forgotten; his pedestrian exercise had given him a keen appetite and it was abundantly satisfied.”

‘Thus, we meet “Rob of the House of the Whelks” as he was known in the district,’ said Donald Adamson. ‘Alongside him was his wife Kirsty Fraser, who may have been the daughter of the previous innkeeper, William Fraser. Donald Sage’s meal might have been representative of standard fare at Wilkhouse. Milk, cheese and eggs supplementing cuts of mutton and beef, although not necessarily the most prestigious cuts. However, the archaeological evidence reveals that the diet appears to have been more varied, with rabbits, birds (including auks) and fish on the menu. In addition, marine shellfish and notably whelks were eaten.’

A visitor around 1800 would have seen the inn as distinctly modern in comparison with the three vernacular buildings surrounding it. It was representative of modernity and all that that implied at a time when farming patterns and landscape use were changing across the Scottish Highlands,’ added Donald Adamson, whose research into drove roads instigated the excavation. ‘Every other structure referred back in time to building methods and knowledge which had gradually accumulated in the locality. In a sense therefore, the inn represented something intrusive in the landscape.’

The new archaeological evidence found on site weave a rich picture of life in the years leading up to 1819. A curious inverted cross was carved into one of the hearth stones and may have been intended to deter witches flying down the chimney. Shards of ‘firing’ or ‘shot’ glass evokes a picture of toasts being exchanged after a meal or drinking session, with the noise of the glasses being slammed down on a table echoing through the inn. The majority of coins relate to the last phase of Wilkhouse operating as an inn. Most are halfpennies of the reigns of George II and George III, although there is also a Parys Mine token, valued at one penny, dated 1788. The distribution of finds indicate that many were dropped in an enclosure at the rear of the inn which might have been the area for unsaddling.

Four earlier coins suggest that the site was occupied in the seventeenth century and before. The earliest coin is a billon hardhead (two pence Scots) of James VI, dated 1588, which seems to have been dropped in the 1590s. There are then two ‘turners’, one a Scottish copper turner of the 1640s, also worth two pence Scots, and the second a French royal issue ‘double tournois’, dated 1628, of Louis XIII. The probability is that both circulated through much of the seventeenth century. The fourth coin is from the reign of Charles II, dated 1681 and is an Irish copper halfpenny.

Personal items recovered during the excavation including pins, buckles, strap fittings, thimbles and a part of a comb add colour to the domestic context of the buildings. Two military buttons of the Sutherland Fencibles, one possibly belonging to an officer, suggest that the inn was a meeting place for a company of soldiers in the period 1793 to 1801, when Britain was being defended against the possibility of French invasion by militia.

The trade patterns which had sustained Wilkhouse Inn, up to and through the Napoleonic wars, with its cattle stance to one side, were about to suffer a convulsive shift as ‘Improvement’ took a grip in the northern Highlands. An agricultural economy based on subsistence farming carried on by a network of sub-tenants, which relied on the export of black cattle as the cash crop, was about to be replaced by huge sheep farms, which were let directly to the highest bidders without consideration for family ties. In the case of Sutherland, this involved the movement of most of the people from the interior of the county to the coast, to the Lowlands and abroad. The cattle drovers were replaced by shepherds. The lands were cleared, the buildings forcibly abandoned, roofs removed and the people scattered.

The excavation was undertaken in 2017 for Dr Donald Adamson who had completed a study on droving routes in the Scottish Highlands. The excavation involved collaboration between Clyne Heritage Society, the University of Glasgow and GUARD Archaeology, and provided training for early career archaeologists and also volunteer opportunities for members of the local and wider community.

ARO37: Wilkhouse: An Archaeological Innvestigation by Donald Adamson and Warren Bailie is freely available to download from the ARO website – Archaeology Reports Online.

Centuries-old mystery of Paisley Abbey medieval tunnel is revealed

We already knew Scotland’s finest and best-preserved medieval tunnel lies buried beneath Paisley town centre – but the centuries-old mystery of where it ended had never been solved…until now.

A team of volunteers led by GUARD Archaeologists spent the summer excavating Paisley Abbey’s Drain and found a well-preserved fourteenth century stone archway marking the exact point the drain and its contents once flowed into the River Cart. They established the tunnel – believed to be around 100m long – ends around 3m from the banks of the present-day river, which would have been wider and shallower at the time the drain was built.

And while the find is now being covered up again, the discovery could help lead to a more permanent visitor attraction being built in the future allowing people to go inside the drain.

Excavation leader Bob Will said, ‘We found more than I was expecting and it is really exciting. We found the end of the drain and what was the boundary wall of the monastery. The river was wider and shallower in those days – much more than in the last couple of hundred years, as the walls now surrounding it are artificial. The main parts of the drain date back to the mid-fourteenth century and are incredibly well preserved.’

The Abbey Drain had lain hidden for centuries until it was unexpectedly rediscovered in the nineteenth century, and in recent years, it has been periodically opened up for visitors. There will be an opportunity for the public to put their names forward for a ballot to go inside it during this year’s Doors Open Day in September.

And Bob believes the finds of the past few weeks could help the development of a more permanent attraction opening up a greater degree of public access to the drain. He said: ‘What we have uncovered has helped us see what could be done with any future excavation. We now know much more about the mediaeval ground levels and have a good idea where some of the monastery buildings were. Ideally there would be more permanent access to the drain at some point in the future and what we’ve uncovered here makes that much more feasible.’

Renfrewshire Council leader Iain Nicolson added: ‘Paisley is already on the map as a key visitor destination within Scotland and we are already delivering on ambitious plans to use our unique heritage to drive new footfall to the town centre. We would be keen to explore any opportunities to build on that by opening up more permanent access to the Abbey Drain at some point in the future – and the findings of the Big Dig mean we now know more than ever about this incredible feature beneath the town centre. The Big Dig was a really great community project which has created a lot of interest in Paisley town centre and its history over the past couple of months. We would like to thank our funders for helping make it happen, and all who have been involved in the projects – particularly the local volunteers who came out in all weathers to take part.’

The eight-week Abbey Drain Big Dig was co-ordinated by Renfrewshire Council and led by GUARD Archaeology Ltd, with funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic Environment Scotland. It also saw a strong community element, with volunteers from Renfrewshire Local History Forum taking part in the dig, students from the University of the West of Scotland filming it, and a series of events and seminars for residents and visitors.

In 2015, GUARD Archaeology Ltd carried out an excavation in advance of a housing development at Colinhill on the outskirts of Strathaven in South Lanarkshire. The work, which has just been published, revealed two adjacent but distinct Bronze Age roundhouses dating to the mid-second millennium BC and two Neolithic pit groups dating to the fourth millennium BC.

The Neolithic pit groups are indicative of nearby inhabitation. Radiocarbon dates indicate that although the two groups fall broadly within the early and the middle Neolithic (3700–3000 BC), they likely date to either extreme of this and could be up to 700 years apart in origin. The artefactual assemblages present within the pits are typical of those associated within the earlier Neolithic period. These assemblages include a range of Carinated Bowl pottery, pitchstone tools, worked stone tools, axe-head fragments and burnt bone and stone fragments. Both the earlier and latter group of Neolithic pits at Colinhill all comprise un-weathered pits with all but one containing a single mixed deposit, suggesting that the material may have been worked and mixed prior to a swift deposition after the feature was dug. The presence of the two groups around 180 m apart suggest that the upper slopes of Colinhill were sporadically revisited.

The particularly high proportion of pitchstone, which originates from Arran, could be connected to the sites’ proximity to Biggar, which has been previously identified as an area of high pitchstone concentrations. The pottery assemblage also reflects shared attributes of style and technique evident across several Neolithic sites in south-west Scotland. Altogether these provide insight into the exchange of materials and ideas across southwest of Scotland.

The two roundhouses on the other hand date to around the middle centuries of the second millennium BC – the middle Bronze Age – though it is unclear if they were at any point contemporary with each other. Radiocarbon dating shows that Roundhouse A may have been slightly earlier but there is a possibility that occupation of the two structures overlapped in time. The evidence within both roundhouses for repairs certainly suggests that attempts were made to prolong the life of each structure.

Both roundhouses appear to be typical of a turf or earth constructed ring-bank and post-built structure with east facing entranceways. Given the scale and arrangement of the structure along with the presence of domestic waste material within the post-holes, it seems feasible that both were primarily domestic structures. The 9.1 m diameter of Roundhouse B and 9.5 m diameter of Roundhouse A are also roughly typical of similar structures in western and southern Scotland at this time.

Significantly, both roundhouses share the presence of much earlier Neolithic material. While some of these objects are small enough that they may have originated from the earlier Neolithic activity on the site and ended up unintentionally within the backfill of Bronze age post-holes and ditches; this becomes less likely for the much larger Neolithic objects,  leaf-shaped flint arrowhead and a pitchstone core, recovered from Roundhouse B. It seems probable that there was an intentional aspect to the deposition of these objects, which may have been found by the later Bronze Age inhabitants who retained them for their ‘exotic’ form and material. This makes consideration of the lifecycle of these objects particularly interesting, with it being possible that they may have been deposited with a ritual aspect twice, over a millennium apart; firstly, as part of the structured deposition of an early Neolithic Carinated Bowl assemblage from a nearby pit, and then again on their discovery in the middle Bronze Age as part of the roundhouse construction.

The archaeological works were funded by Stewart Milne Homes, Robertson Homes and L S Smellie and Sons Ltd. ARO35: Neolithic pits and Bronze Age settlement at Colinhill, Strathaven by Beth Spence with contributions from Torben Bjarke Ballin, Beverley Ballin Smith and Susan Ramsay, is freely available to download from the ARO website – Archaeology Reports Online.