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Archaeological Watching Brief

St Valery Avenue, Inverness

St Valery Avenue, Inverness: Watching Brief May 2013

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Archaeological Watching Brief

St Valery Avenue Inverness

Report No. HAS130509

Site Code ISV13

Client Robertson Group

Grid Ref (indicative) NH 6517 4454

Date/ revision 31/05/2013

Author L McKeggie

Summary An archaeological watching brief was cared out between 7th and 16th May 2013 to identify and record any features or artefacts of cultural heritage significance affected by construction of a water main along the towpath of the Caledonian Canal to serve a new housing development at St Valery Avenue, Inverness. No previously unrecorded cultural heritage features were identified during this work.


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Contents

Summary ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2

Location .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Aims and objectives ....................................................................................................................................................... 6

Legislation and Policy .................................................................................................................................................... 6

Archaeology background ............................................................................................................................................... 7

Method ........................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Results ............................................................................................................................................................................ 9

Appendix: Photographs ............................................................................................................................................... 12

Illustrations Figure 1 General location .............................................................................................................................................. 4 Figure 2 Project area ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 3: Extract from OS 1st edition 25 inch (1:25000) map surveyed 1868. .............................................................. 8 Plate 1: Pipe trench section .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Plate 2 Trench lower NE end ....................................................................................................................................... 11

Acknowledgements Field work was carried out by John Wood and Lachlan Mckeggie over the two weeks. Project management overall was by John Wood, who also edited this report. Background mapping has been reproduced by permission of the Ordnance Survey under Licence 100043217. The project plan has been kindly supplied by the client.


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Location The watching brief covered construction of a water main to serve a new housing development at St Valery Avenue, Dalneigh, Inverness. The development is centred at approx. NH 6517 4454 next to the Caledonian Canal (Scheduled Monument no 6499) and the new water main runs along the canal towpath past Tomnahurich Cemetery to the A82 road bridge at NH 6550 4385. The whole project lies at about 14m above sea level.

Figure 1 General location

Reproduced by permission of the Ordnance Survey under Licence 100043217


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Figure 2 Project area

Not to scale. Courtesy of client

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Aims and objectives • To minimise any possible delay or cost to the development by anticipating archaeological

requirements as far as possible, timetabling and integrating archaeological recording work with the project, and dealing with any issues arising quickly and efficiently.

• To determine as far as possible the character, extent, condition, date and significance of any

archaeologically significant remains; and to record these where necessary in line with national and local policies and standards.

Legislation and Policy The common principles underlying international conventions, national legislation and local authority planning policies are that cultural heritage assets should be identified in advance of development and safeguarded where practicable; if disturbance is unavoidable appropriate recording of features and recovery of portable artefacts should take place. These have been set out in international and European Union agreements, and UK and Scottish legislation, as well as national and local planning policies1.

Professional standards during the present project will be secured by adherence to the Codes of Conduct and Approved Practice and Standards of the Institute for Archaeologists and the Highland Council’s Standards for Archaeological Work.

1 International policy includes the European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (the Valletta Convention), ratified by the UK government in 2000; European Directives incorporated into UK legislation include the Environmental Impact Assessment (Scotland) Regulations 2011

Key UK legislation includes The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 which covers any monument ‘of national importance’ and requires Historic Scotland’s consent for any works affecting it. The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 and the Planning etc (Scotland) Act 2006 confirm that the historic environment (whether covered by statutory protection or not) is a material consideration in the planning process.

Planning policy includes the Scottish Government’s Scottish Planning Policy (SPP 2010). This defines the ‘historic environment’ and indicates that where preservation is not possible, planning authorities should ensure that procedures are in place in order that appropriate excavation, recording, analysis, publication and archiving is undertaken before and/or during development and that the developer has made appropriate provision for this. Historic Scotland’s policies and guidance are set out in Scottish Historic Environment Policy (SHEP) 2009, and Managing Change in the Historic Environment series (2010).

The Highland Council’s Highland-wide Local Development Plan (HwLDP) (2010, adopted 2012) encourages appropriate developments while protecting archaeology and built heritage


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Archaeology background Relevant archaeological / historical records, maps and aerial photographs were checked for recorded sites and background information. There are many recorded archaeological features in this general area of which two appear to be of particular relevance. Feature 1: Caledonian Canal, Dochgarroch Lock - Muirtown Locks

NGR: NH619404 - NH651454

This is a Scheduled Monument, described by Historic Scotland as follows:

‘The monument comprises that stretch of inland waterway known as the Caledonian Canal running north-eastward from Dochgarroch Lock to the flight of locks at Muirtown, in Inverness. The area proposed to be scheduled includes all the canal in water and the strip of ground extending up to 20m from the water on either side and containing the towpaths and embankments and any associated capstans, bollards, mooring hooks, mile posts, weirs and overflows. The scheduled area excludes the road swing bridge at Tomnahurich and all modern moorings, pontoons, slipways, walls and fences, power cables, lampposts and other street furniture. The scheduled area is marked in red on the accompanying map extract.

National Importance

The monument is of national importance as a major component of the Caledonian Canal, built between 1803 and 1822. The canal was designed by the famous Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford and financed directly by the Government. At the opening ceremony it was described as “one of the most stupendous undertakings of that nature which Europe had seen”; it was certainly then, and remains today, the single largest construction work in the Highlands.’ 2

The new water main was laid along the canal tow path, which has changed very little since the time of the first edition Ordnance Survey map. (Figure 3).

Feature 2: Tomnahurich Cemetery

NGR: NH 65580 44150

This is included in the (non-statutory) Register of Gardens and Designed Landscapes where it is described by Historic Scotland as follows:

2 http://data.historic-scotland.gov.uk/pls/htmldb/f?p=2300:35:1649544320864961::::P35_SELECTED_MONUMENT:06499


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‘This major 19th and 20th century public cemetery adds significant landscape value to the city of Inverness. It consists of an extensive series of sculptured monuments and plantations, with views of Tomnahurich Hill.’ 3 Tomnahurich hill (Hill of the Yew-Trees) is a place of local legend. Within the cemetery area are recorded the find spot of a carved stone ball4, a cist burial5 as well as other features related to the cemetery.

Figure 3: Extract from OS 1st edition 25 inch (1:25000) map surveyed 1868.

Mainland Sheet XII.5 not reproduced to scale

Method Following a desk-based assessment, the watching brief was undertaken between 7th and 16th of May 2013. Although an archaeologist was not on site at all times the site was visited at least once a day. During visits the open areas of pipe trench were carefully inspected for evidence of archaeological or other cultural heritage features, including any potential for further evidence. Photographs were taken of areas opened and plotted using a survey grade GPS (Pro Mark3). All other methods were undertaken as per the proposal document agreed by all parties6.

3 http://data.historic-scotland.gov.uk/pls/htmldb/f?p=2400:15:0::::GARDEN:GDL00374 4 http://her.highland.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MHG3803 5 http://her.highland.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MHG3804 6 HAS130405 April 2013


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Results The pipe trench was opened along the Caledonian Canal towpath northwards from Tomnahurich Bridge, past the cemetery then leaving the towpath to serve a small housing development. Observations included the towpath section, which is within the scheduled area and an open area to the NE of the canal behind the towpath embankment. Tow Path The canal towpath here follows the top of an embankment to the east of the waterway. The pipe trench was entirely contained within this built-up material. The highest deposit along the whole length observed was the path itself , consisting of a grey sand and stone layer 5-10cm deep [001]. Beneath this, at the south end, close to the swing bridge, and running for around 150m north, three layers were visible. Directly below the path was a brown re-deposited natural with stones, 55cm deep [002]. Below this, a dark soil layer about 10cm deep, which appeared to represent a buried soil horizon [003]. Finally below this, a clean yellow grey mixed sand with stones extended to the bottom of the trench 1m below the surface [004].


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Plate 1: Pipe trench within canal embankment

At around 150m north of the swing bridge the dark middle layer [003]faded out, leaving context [002] directly above [004], as described above although the upper layer became gradually deeper. By 350m north of the bridge, the lower of these two layers had totally disappeared leaving only one mixed brown deposit [002] visible below the path material. This continued to the point at which the trench turned off the towpath 430m from the bridge. No cultural heritage features or finds were identified along any part of the canal toe path within the scheduled area. Open area The open area to the NE and below the embankment was found to consist of dark rich topsoil over sandy red brown subsoil with many stones and some roots. The trench here was a little wider and 1.2m deep. No


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features were identified on the 50m section investigated out with the scheduled area to the NE of the site, and finds in this area were restricted to modern rubbish (plastic and drinks cans).

Plate 2 Trench lower NE end - open area


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Appendix: Photographs Photo No

From Facing Showing Date

1-11 JCP1 - General view pre-excavation of development area to NE of Canal site

07/05/2013

12-33 JCP2 - Panorama of shots showing canal toe path to be excavated. 07/05/2013 34 JCP3 S Close up of trench under excavation 07/05/2013 35 JCP3 S Trench opened 7th May 2013 07/05/2013 36 JCP4 NE Trench section 07/05/2013 37 JCP4 SE Trench section 07/05/2013 38 JCP5 SW Trench open at South end 07/05/2013 39-40 JCP5 NW Trench open from south end 07/05/2013 41-42 JCP5 N Spoil 07/05/2013 1-2 CP1 SE South East trench end 09/05/2013 3-4 CP1 NW Back filled trench 09/05/2013 5-6 CP2 NW NW end of trench 09/05/2013 7 CP3 NW Work underway NW end 09/05/2013 8 CP3 E NW trench section 09/05/2013 9-10 CP4 SE Pipe in end of trench 09/05/2013 11 CP4 NW Pipe to be dug 09/05/2013 12 CP4 SE Pipe trench back filling 09/05/2013 13 CP5 Track to be excavated 09/05/2013 14 CP6 Track to be excavated 09/05/2013 15 CP7 Development area North end 09/05/2013 1 CP8 NW Trench open 13th 13/05/2013 2 CP9 SE Trench open 13th 13/05/2013 3 CP10 E West facing section 13/05/2013 4 CP11 W East facing section 13/05/2013 5-6 CP12 NW Trench open 14th 14/05/2013 7-8 CP13 SE Trench open 14th 14/05/2013 9 CP14 N West facing section 14/05/2013 10 CP15 N East facing section 14/05/2013 11 CP16 Section 14/05/2013 12-13 CP17 N Trench open 15th 15/05/2013 14 CP18 S Trench open 15th 15/05/2013 15 CP19 NE North end of trench and end of site 15/05/2013 16-17 CP18 S Trench with 1m scale 15/05/2013 18 CP20 E West facing trench section 15/05/2013 19 CP21 W East facing trench section 15/05/2013 20 CP22 NE Top of bank looking down onto open trench 16/05/2013 21 CP23 SW Bottom of bank looking up onto toe path 16/05/2013 22 CP23 N Trench opened 16th May 16/05/2013 23 CP24 S North end of opened trench 16th May 16/05/2013 24 CP25 S North end of trench 16/05/2013 25 CP26 S Path after backfill 16/05/2013


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Figure 4: Camera Points (South)


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Figure 5 Camera points (north)

st valery avenue, inverness...st valery avenue, inverness: watching brief may 2013 7 archaeology...

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