Radiocarbon dates have been received from FIRAT Archaeological Services for samples taken during an excavation of what was initially interpreted as a shieling hut when it was excavated in 2006. The bulk of the text for this news item is drawn from FIRAT's data structure report on the excavation. The site, which is located at Allt Fearna on the Douglas Water near Inveraray, was excavated because it would be destroyed by construction of a collection weir associated with a proposed hydro-electicity generation scheme. Although the site had been identified as a shieling on the basis of its surface moprphology, excavation demonstrated that it had a more complex history. The recently-received radiocarbon dates add a significant time-depth to the record of occupation on the site.
The site initially appeared as a poorly defined sub-circular mound with a small stone built cell at the centre and was covered with bracken and rough upland grass. The shieling comprised a small drystone cell, constructed with boulders on a turf mound constructed of cut turves built up around it. Underlying the shieling hut, from which no dating evidence was recovered, lay a buried ground surface. Underlying the buried ground surface was a burnt mound. The burnt mound consisted of a large hearth area rich in charcoal and fire-cracked stones, a stone lined cooking pit with burnt and fire-cracked stones still in situ in its base, and a few other small pits, post-holes and stakeholes. The post- and stake-holes did not immediately form a cohesive or obvious structure, but their very presence indicates some kind of shelter was erected at the site. A single sherd of prehistoric coarse ware pottery was recovered from burnt mound rake-out deposits. For more details of the features identified at Allt Fearna, see WoSAS Pin 44790
Although the site was excavated in 2006, radiocarbon dates have only recently been obtained. These indicate that the last use of the cooking pit and the last rake-out of the hearth associated with the ealiest burnt mound phase of activity on the site occured during the Bronze Age. A third sample, taken from a hearth identified on the old ground surface forming the intermediate phase of the site between the burnt mound and the shieling was dated to 740BP, placing it in the medieval period. This range of dates indicates the long tradition of activity on the site, and strongly suggests that other ostensible 'shieling' sites may have a similarly interesting background