Building record MAB15997 - CRAIG WELL, PITTODRIE ESTATE

Remains of an enclosure recorded by walkover survey and Lidar imagery.

Remains of an enclosure recorded by walkover survey and Lidar imagery. The rectilinear enclosure appears to have been cut by later features, including a hollow-way and at least one house platform. Above the enclosure are earthworks focused on what appears to be an artificial mound. A series of trenches were excavated in 2019 as part of the Bennachie Landscapes Project recorded elements of a complex landscape. North of the enclosure are substantial remains. Upslope, investigation of a house platform revealed the footings of a well-built house which post-dates the enclosure, but possibly pre-dating the 19th century, On the highest (west) part of the site trenching through the mound revealed that this was man-made and comprising a number of individual features including an earthen linear bank a drystane dyke, a possible clay-walled structure and the mound itself. A radiocarbon date of the 10th century AD was obtained from the possible structure. Further work was carried out in 2021 concentration on the enclosure dyke. The hollow way appears to have linked the lower-lying farmlands to the resources higher up the hill. A trench in the southeast corner of the enclosure examined construction of the enclosure dyke, which comprised large basal stones pinned by smaller ones to provide a stable foundation, above which were external stones with well-packed hearting making the core of the dyke. Finds from the trench included two pottery sherds of possible late medieval date, although more recent sherds from the context suggest these were residual in a later feature. A copper alloy coin is as yet undated. A trench cut across the east side of the enclosure recorded a stone structure within the enclosure: a sample of charcoal from the sealed context below this structure returned a radiocarbon date of 551 to 405 BC (Iron Age). Further excavation was also undertaken on the mound. There were few finds, but from a foundation deposit in the northeast part of the trench is part of an engraved piece of metamorphosed sedimentary rock which appears to have been finished fairly smooth prior to the engraving of a design of concentric circles. This trench evidences four major episodes: building of the structure, destruction of the structure resulting in a lathe amount of burned material; a period of abandonment lacking evidence for activity; and finally stone robbing that disturbed and muddled the deposits. A fourth season of excavation was undertaken in June 2022, comprising one trench on the southwest of the mound to further characterise the earthworks, the second expanding the excavation of Trench from the previous seasons to the east of the building platform. The results suggest at least five phases of use. A fifth season of excavation in 2023 further explored structural features identified in Trench 9 in 2021 and features found on the mound in Trench 10. The structure in Trench 9 was found to continue to the south before turning to the west, although any continuation to the west was unclear. A number of late medieval pottery sherds were recovered from a context to the west of the recorded structure. The enlargement Trench 9 also recorded more of the enclosure dyke. There is some indication that the interior of the enclosure was enhanced by the introduction of soil from elsewhere. Extension of Trench 10 revealed a well preserved stone-lined, medieval grain drying kiln and an earlier earth-cut version. Community excavation in July – August 2024 included extensions to Trench 1 – the pre-modern cottage – and new trenches opened across an area of boggy ground, previously thought to be a potential mill pond. OSL results from the previous year’s excavations suggest the study area to have seen ongoing settlement activity since the eleventh century. Ecofact results from the kilns indicate the woodland species present in the area in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, oak/hazel woodland appearing to have been dominant. Excavations in the bog revealed wooden remains embedded in a clay matrix, although it is not yet clear whether these are structural remains. Further work was carried out to confirm the ground-plan of the pre-modern cottage; documentary evidence suggests a seventeenth- to late eighteenth-century horizon, which is supported by artefactual evidence. Across the Craig Water Burn, opposite the cottage, the remains of an enclosure dyke possibly relate to the earlier Craigwater croft. This is suggested by documentary evidence to have been present in the seventeenth century and continuing through the nineteenth as a small ‘improved’ holding.

Period Notes
Radiocarbon dating 2019 sample: SUERC-91076 (GU5345R), hazel sample from mound, 1076+/-24 BP, calibrated to 894 to 1023 AD at 2 sigma, RC samples 2021: SUERC-101066 (GU59115), alder, sealed beneath smaller structure, 2434 +/- 26 BP, calibrated to 750 - 407 BC at 2 sigma; SUERC-101067 (GU59116), cherry, 146 +/-26 BP, calibrated to 1669 to 1905 AD

RALSTON, I, 2019, THE PITTODRIE ESTATE 'BEDE HOUSE' EXCAVATIONS, IN SHEPHERD, C. (ED) BENNACHIE AND THE GARIOCH, 4, 105-152. (Bibliographic reference). SAB3192.

RALSTON, I, 2020, BENNACHIE LANDSCAPES PROJECT: INTERIM REPORT ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS ON THE PITTODRIE ESTATE, ABERDEENSHIRE, SUMMER 2019 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3190.

RALSTON, I, 2021, BENNACHIE LANDSCAPES PROJECT: INTERIM REPORT ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS ON THE PITTODRIE ESTATE, ABERDEENSHIRE, SUMMER 2021 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3176.

RALSTON, I, 2022, BENNACHIE LANDSCAPES PROJECT: INTERIM REPORT ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS ON THE PITTODRIE ESTATE, ABERDEENSHIRE, SUMMER 2022 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3191.

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2022, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND, NEW SERIES, VOLUME 22 (2021), pp.19-20 (Bibliographic reference). SAB8314.

RALSON, I, 2023, INTERIM REPORT OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS ON THE PITTODRIE ESTATE, ABERDEENSHIRE, SUMMER 2023 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3202.

Record last edited

Jul 25 2025 1:58PM