Progress Being Made on Dig
July 2019
The first few weeks of a new programme of fieldwork and excavation suggest a rich area of archaeology where people may have lived for centuries.
The work is being done by volunteers from the Bennachie Landscapes group in an area off the turnpike track that runs from the Rowntree Car Park to the Bennachie Centre. The area is in the grounds of the Pittodrie House Hotel and is taking place with the kind permission of Macdonald Hotels who own the estate.
Iain Ralston of the Landscape Group, a joint project of the Bailies of Bennachie and the University of Aberdeen, said:
“We have opened up three trenches so far all showing promising signs of good archaeology present. Trenches one and three in particular are revealing very substantial walls to buildings and we have recovered parts of glass and earthenware.”
“The evidence is that people lived here over many generations and I expect that we will find earlier material once we start going down into the earlier layers.”
“It seems this area had several buildings and a road going through it. We don’t know when people moved here or why they moved out. The ordnance survey map of 1866 doesn’t show buildings here so people had moved away by then. A slightly earlier map (Robertson 1822) suggests farms in the vicinity and a rental of Pittodrie Esate about 1771 indicates a number of farmsteads. As the area is part of the Pittodrie House Estate it has lain undisturbed under vegetation until now when we hope to find clues to who lived here and when.”
Volunteers are welcome to come and help with the excavations. Work will start at 10am and continue until 4.30.
Please contact info@bailiesofbennachie.co.uk to book to take part and find out the days the dig is on. A complete list of dates is available on the Bailies of Bennachie web site
