Equipping Scotland's longest road for the needs of the future could end up shedding new light on our past, after the discovery of a possible Iron Age structure near the A9.
Archaeologists have been retained as part of an eight-year project to dual the road, and have already discovered what may the the remains of a building, pottery and a stone tool on the Crubenmore to Kincraig stretch of the route.
Keith Brown Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work said the work on the A9 was designed to improve journey times while also making the road safer for users. "At the same time, the ongoing design work has opened a window into Scotland’s past," he said. "We have already been able to shed more light on the Battle of Killiecrankie and now these latest finds on another stretch of the route offer evidence for experts on how our prehistoric descendants lived in the Iron Age.”
The dualling of the A9 trunk road from Perth to Inverness is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Scotland. Over 80 miles of road will be improved over the next 8 years to improve the quality and reliability of journeys along the road.
In common with other major infrastructure projects, Transport Scotland appointed archaeologists in order to check for previously hidden ancient structures and other significant archaeology which may be revealed by works as they continue along the entire route.
Commercial archaeologists, Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (Orca), have opened trial trenches to investigate several interesting finds uncovered by a geophysical survey.
The interest of the archaeologists was heightened further as the ground investigation works are located close to a prehistoric subterranean chamber known as a souterrain, called Raitt’s Cave, near Kingussie. This underground structure is a scheduled monument and is very large compared to most similar structures in Northern Scotland.
Traces of a previously unknown structure were quickly identified together with a scattering of pottery sherds and what experts believe may be a stone Ard point – a sharpened stone once used as part of a plough.
Following advice from Orca, the team has now put in place plans to incorporate an archaeological investigation into the schedule for the road improvements.
Peter Higgins, Senior Project Manager at Orca, commented, “We are tremendously excited by these finds in this archaeologically significant location. We are also pleased that we can work with Transport Scotland to make sure that these finds are recorded correctly without impeding the roadworks so vital to this Scotland’s economic development.”
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