background to the survey

The Ness Archaeological Landscape Survey (NALS) will put Dùn Èistean in the context of the surrounding landscape of Ness. The reputation of Dùn Èistean reached a great distance and to understand the workings of the site we must see it as part of a wider landscape, in both time and space.

The archaeology of Ness is dominated by a crofting landscape imprinted with feannagan and other reminders of a once intensively-worked land. The survey will attempt to interpret and record these remains, but also consider the earlier occupation of the area. There are few obvious prehistoric remains, although with closer scrutiny this evidence is apparent within eroding dune systems and along the side of peat cuttings. One of the aims of the survey is to identify these earlier remains, linking yesterday’s hidden landscape to today’s more obvious one.

Three levels of survey have been identified during the lifetime of the project - desk-based assessment, walkover assessment and detailed survey. Each level of survey will include volunteers, local volunteers being uniquely placed to provide extremely valuable contributions to the NALS aspect of DEAP, especially during fieldwork, through their unrivalled local knowledge and empathy with the Ness landscape. Whilst working with the survey teams, volunteers will be able to gain experience of a range of techniques from site recognition and recording to Total Station and differential GPS surveying. The programme of survey work in 2005 includes an initial desk-based assessment of all available documentary and map sources for the area, and a week of walkover survey. Spring seasons of walkover, topographic and geophysical survey will then be completed in 2006 and 2007. Samples for pollen and macrofossil analysis from peat deposits, waterlogged deposits in low lying agricultural area, and sealed soil deposits below main dykes or enclosures will be taken to study the history of the environment of Ness in the past. The survey fieldwork will be followed by two seasons of post-survey processing and analysis.

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