Report Summary

Re-alignment of a 6km section of the A830 road in Arisaig provided an opportunity to investigate the archaeology of this poorly understood area of the West Highlands. A combination of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental techniques were used to investigate the road corridor. Archaeological survey, followed up by selected excavations, identified a previously unrecorded Bronze Age kerb cairn and two areas of shieling huts. Investigation of the shielings obtained evidence for repeated reuse of sites and reconstruction of structures through the medieval and post-medieval periods. In both cases, Bronze Age deposits were also recorded at the base of the medieval sequence. Analysis of a long peat core from a basin close to one of the shielings revealed a history of continuous but gradual decline in woodland, starting in about 3200 BC and continuing to the present day. Collation of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data from the present project and previous investigations in the area have allowed the creation of a tentative model of landscape evolution for Arisaig.

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Report content

	Title Page
	Table of content
	List of Illustrations
	List of Tables
1	Summary
2	Introduction
3	The Archaeology of Arisaig: Early Investigations
4	Absence or Invisibility?
5	A Transect Across the Landscape: the Line of the A830 Improvements
6	The Archaeological Investigations
	6.1 Shieling huts and circular stone features: Sites 3–6 (centred on NM 6675 9005)
	6.1.1 Survey
	6.1.2 Evaluation
	6.1.3 Excavation
	6.1.4 Reuse of temporary sites from prehistory
	6.2 Shieling huts and cultivation rigs: Site 8 (centred on NM 659 888)
	6.2.1 Survey
	6.2.2 Evaluation
	6.2.3 Excavation
	6.2.4 Lithics	C Wickham-Jones
	6.2.5 Reuse and expansion over time
	6.3 Rectangular turf structure: Site 10 (NM 6583 8835)
	6.3.1 Survey
	6.3.2 Evaluation
	6.4 Township: Site 15 (centred on NM 658 878)
	6.4.1 Survey
	6.4.2 Evaluation
	6.4.3 Watching brief
	6.5 Rectangular building: Site 26 (NM 6599 8693)
	6.5.1 Survey
	6.5.2 Evaluation
	6.6 Kerb cairn: Site 41 (NM 6634 8651)
	6.6.1 Excavation
	6.6.2 History and use
7	Vegetation History
	7.1 Peat core from Allt Dail an Dubh-asaidh
	7.2 Other evidence for vegetation history of the Arisaig area
8	Occupation and Use of a Marginal Landscape
	8.1 Core and periphery in Arisaig
	8.2 Site-based and landscape-scale evidence for human impact
	8.3 Evolution of the Arisaig landscape
	8.3.1 Stage 1: Early prehistory
	8.3.2 Stage 2: Later prehistory
	8.3.3 Stage 4: Medieval and later period
	8.3.4 Postscript: The recent past
9	Palynological Analyses at Allt Dail an Dubh-asaidh
	9.1 Introduction and summary
	9.2 Methodology
	9.3 Radiocarbon dates
	9.4 Results
	9.5 Interpretation of pollen data
	9.5.1 Zone 1A: Base to c8900 BP
	9.5.2 Zone 1B: c89–7245 BP
	9.5.3 Zone 1C: c 7245–6070 BP
	9.5.4 Zone 1D: c 6070–4250 BP
	9.5.5 Zone 1E: c 4520–2410 BP
	9.5.6 Zone 1F: c 2410–present
	9.6 Interpretation of charcoal data
	9.7 Natural vegetation succession
	9.8 Human activity
	9.9 Conclusions
10	Acknowledgements
11	References

Published by The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in association with The Council for British Archaeology and Historic Scotland, in Adobe Acrobat format. Available free of charge (see Terms & Conditions of Use).

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Page last modified by Mike Heyworth (mikeheyworth@britarch.ac.uk) on Monday 27 June 2005.