Recently published research by GUARD Archaeology Ltd reveals that the location of a housing development in Larkhall was already popular in prehistory.

The discoveries were made during archaeological excavations undertaken by GUARD Archaeology prior to the building of new houses in 2014, the results of which have only been revealed now once post-excavation analyses were completed. 

The earliest evidence of settlement on this site which overlooks the River Avon, was a small ephemeral circular hut that was radiocarbon dated to the eighth-ninth millennia BC. This was one of the earliest Mesolithic encampments ever found in Scotland, when small  groups of hunter-gatherers were moving into northern Europe after the retreat of the permanent ice sheets and the return of vegetation, plants, woodland and animals.

Some seven thousand years later, another group of people settled this same location. Located in the middle of the promontory was a substantial roundhouse, radiocarbon dated to sometime between the sixteenth and thirteenth centuries BC, during the Bronze Age. A ring of eight large post-holes and the remnants of the thick oak posts that once supported the building’s large conical roof were revealed by the GUARD Archaeologists. This ring of post-holes was surrounded by a circular gully that held the outer wall in place. Fragments of daub from this outer wall survived, showing how the inhabitants kept their house windproof. Sherds of pottery vessels were also found, in pits and post-holes within the centre of the building, and sealed by an organic deposit that may have been part of the building’s roof preserved by waterlogging. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the building was abandoned sometime between the twelfth and tenth centuries BC.

Over a thousand years later, a small rectangular timber building was built on this same location, overlying the Bronze Age roundhouse. It contained a large a fire-pit that was dated from the first to the third century AD, placing it occupation during the Iron Age, when the threat of Rome lay to the south. The building also contained evidence of dung suggest that at least part of it functioned as a small byre for animals.

These chronologically distinct phases of occupation emphasis the attractiveness of this place in the landscape of south Lanarkshire to successive groups of people from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age.

The archaeological work was funded by Bracewell Stirling Consulting and was required as a condition of planning consent by South Lanarkshire council who are advised on archaeological matters by the West of Scotland Archaeology Service, who considered there to be a potential for hitherto unknown archaeology to survive here. 

ARO53: A Mesolithic camp, Bronze Age roundhouse and an Iron Age building at Nairn Street, Larkhall, South Lanarkshire by Kevin Mooney is freely available to download from Archaeology Reports Online.

Recently published research by GUARD Archaeology reveals the discovery of a pair of Bronze Age burnt mounds over four thousand years old.

The discovery was made during archaeological works in advance of the construction of housing at Hallmeadow in Annan. 

‘The Hallmeadow burnt mounds comprised two large accumulations of burnt stones and charcoal surrounding large fire pits,’ said GUARD Archaeologist Kenneth Green, who led the excavation. ‘These were dated to around 2000 BC during the early Bronze Age.’

Burnt stones such as found at Hallmeadow were the waste product of a method of boiling water, in which stones were heated and then dropped into a trough filled with water. Over 1900 burnt mounds are known in Scotland, with a distinct concentration in Dumfries and Galloway, and it is not uncommon to find several burnt mounds in relatively close proximity to each other, suggesting that groups of people returned to the same sites.

Cooking fish and meat may have been the purpose of many burnt mounds. Experiments have demonstrated that a joint of meat wrapped in leaves can be cooked over several hours, with heated stones being continually fed into the tank of water to keep it boiling. However, the archaeologists found no evidence for a permanent settlement at Hallmeadow suggesting that this was no ordinary Bronze Age site.

‘Hallmeadow’s proximity to the Solway Firth, gives the site easy coastal access to south-west Scotland, western England, Ireland and the Isle of Man,’ said Kenneth Green. ‘Hallmeadow may have been used as a temporary stopping-point or seasonal camping area as people made longer journeys around the Irish Sea.’

A number of flint tools were recovered during the excavation including a fragment of Arran pitchstone and a blade-scraper dating to the Neolithic period (4000-2200 BC), suggesting earlier occupation of the site. Even earlier evidence still was discovered by the GUARD Archaeologists. A hazelnut shell found in the lowest layer of the site was radiocarbon dated to between 4452 and 4264 BC, during the Mesolithic period, when some of the earliest hunter-gatherer peoples began to settle in south-west Scotland.

‘Hallmeadow was also an important place during the Neolithic period. It may be that it had been established as a useful stopping off place long before the burnt mounds were built,’ said Kenneth.

The archaeological work at Hallmeadow in Annan was undertaken in 2020 on behalf of Robert Potter & Partners LLP and Ashleigh Building to meet a condition of planning consent recommended by Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Archaeologist. 

Burnt Mounds at Annan by Kenneth Green is published in the Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 96, available in local libraries.