Skeletons and long cists were exposed on the beach at Lundin Links, Fife, after a severe storm in the winter of 1965. An excavation mounted the following Easter to record and excavate these features revealed part of a cemetery, with round and square cairns and long cists. Radiocarbon dates suggest that it was in use for upwards of a century at some time between about  450 and  650. The cemetery may have been related to a long cist cemetery indicated by previous discoveries. Work in 1996 following discovery of a leg bone in the seaward sand-cliff did not add materially to understanding of either cemetery. A study of skeletal traits which can indicate family connections tentatively suggested that one burial group included people with closer connections to each other than to others buried in the cemetery. Burial customs from the late first millennium  through the first millennium  are discussed. Recent radiocarbon dates and publication are sponsored by Historic Scotland.

This report outlines the unexpected discovery of a group of Late Neolithic structures at Greenbogs, Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, along with a series of later prehistoric features in the mid-1990s. Recent radiocarbon dating shows that two four-post timber structures found here date to the period 2890–2490 cal bc. These were found in association with a range of other features including an oval structure and diffuse areas of burning. The closest parallels for the four-post structures can be found in a slowly growing body of Late Neolithic timber structures, some being interpreted as roofed dwellings and others as roofed or unroofed monuments. This article places the Greenbogs structures in their wider context, identifies a number of unexcavated parallels in the aerial record and addresses the nature of the four-post structures found across Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland and suggests that four-post structures were a more common element of Late Neolithic architecture than previously identified. A common building type appears to have been shared across large areas of Britain and Ireland in a variety of contexts, from the seemingly mundane to the more ‘charged’, as part of elaborate monument complexes. The later prehistoric features identified at Greenbogs include a concentration of Middle Bronze Age features including graves containing cremated human bones, one with an upright urn, and a number of Iron Age pits and other features.

No abstract

The burial of an adult male accompanied by a complete N4/Step ?4 beaker within the cist and sherds of an indeterminate beaker on the capstone is described. A review of the evidence suggests that the same beaker  burial pattern existed in north-east Scotland as has been observed in east Yorkshire.

The peninsula known as Castle Point, Troup, was occupied or used from the late Neolithic period to the Second World War. This paper deals with the construction and use of the castle, from the 13th to 17th centuries. The excavations of the castle site revealed the footings of a rectangular tower, with a cobbled courtyard and the remains of a kitchen range to its south-east. Within the kitchen was a collapsed fireplace arch bearing two similar mason's marks. A small quantity of pottery sherds, three coins, dated to the 16th century, and a few other artefacts were also recovered. Evidence of earlier medieval structures underlay the kitchen area, including a number of stone drains, two narrow clay-lined channels and a pit.