Excavations undertaken in 1985 revealed four burgage plots with occupation spanning the mid-thirteenth to the early-fifteenth centuries. Evidence for malting, in the form of a kiln and coble, was recovered in an area relatively undeveloped until the eighteenth century. There are specialist reports on:`The pottery' by Peter Cheer (712--18); `The artefacts' by Adrian Cox (718--24) including a note on the `Coins' by Nicholas Holmes (724); `Animal bone' by Catherine Smith (725--6); `Botanical remains' by Alan Fairweather (726--7).

No abstract

Burgage plots, typically narrow strips of land with a house near the street frontage, are one of the most striking features of the medieval townscape. Archaeological excavations in Scottish burghs over the last twenty-five years have recovered considerable evidence concerning their nature, development and function, and the paper aims to provide an overview of the archaeological evidence for this feature of Scottish burghs. Includes a specialist report on

This report describes the results of three archaeological excavations which took place within the medieval burgh of Dumbarton, two by Eric Talbot between 1971 and 1972 on the High Street and at College Street and the third, on the High Street, by SUAT in 1997. Evidence of medieval activity, including metal working, was found on burgage plots in the High Street. A large pottery assemblage provided an important opportunity to investigate medieval trends in a west coast burgh, an area hitherto under-represented in ceramic studies. Glass waste at College Street may have originated from the site of the late 18th/19th-century Dumbarton Glassworks.

Monitoring and excavation during the development of a new business park in Dornoch (NGR: NH 797 895) in 1997 revealed numerous features including a building, ditched enclosures and several hearths, all sealed beneath an artefact-rich cultivation soil. Radiocarbon dates obtained place the main period of activity here in the late 1st millennium AD. The evidence recovered also suggests a tradition of ironworking here from the early medieval period continuing through into the medieval period. A small assemblage of finds was recovered from the excavation, including quantities of iron slag, bog iron ore, fragments from a clay-lined furnace, whale bone, a bone counter and a bone pin beater. This paper reports on the results of the work and includes an extended section on the analysis of the iron making and working evidence.