This week Time Team will be investigating a potential early Christian chapel on the Isle of Mull, a site originally discovered last year by local enthusiasts Bev Langhorn and Hylda Marsh as part of the highly commended RCAHMS project, Scotland’s Rural Past. The project enlists the help of local volunteers and amateur historians to discover and document lost archaeological sites that litter the Scottish countryside and Bev and Hylda’s work on Mull identified previously unrecorded features that they felt warranted further investigation.
In 2008, members of the RCAHMS undertook a survey of the site in the forest overlooking the harbour of Tobermory. They found that the features contained an artificial terrace upon which was a stone built structure, aligned East-West and a second stone built enclosure identified as a possible burial ground. The archaeology is further complicated by the fact that both structures appear to have been reused at some point for agricultural purposes.
Time Team will be undertaking a three day archaeological evaluation, working alongside the RCAHMS, SRP, the Forestry Commission Scotland and FIRAT Archaeological Services to try and resolve the site as well as determine whether there is an associated settlement to this seemingly isolated structure.
The programme itself is due to air between January and March 2010.