Iron Age Activity beside the River Dee, Cairngorms

Abstract

In June 2019, a charcoal-rich pit was identified in an eroding riverbank during a walk-over survey along the River Dee, in the Mar Lodge Estate, Cairngorm Mountains, as part of a wider Mesolithic research project in the area led by researchers from University College Dublin. Subsequent radiocarbon dating of pine charcoal revealed that the pit was used in the earlier first millennium AD, providing the first archaeological evidence for Iron Age activity in this area of the Cairngorm mountains. No artefacts were uncovered, but the archaeobotanical assemblage from the pit provides evidence for the nature of fuel procurement strategies in this area in the Iron Age. The results highlight the difficulty of identifying early prehistoric archaeological activity in mountain environments and the potential for the survival of further later prehistoric evidence in this area of Mar Lodge.