Watching Brief at MOD West Freugh, Stranraer

Archaeological Services WYAS (ASW AS) undertook a watching brief to monitor the ground investigation works, the work comprised the monitoring of twenty borehole test pits. All test pit locations were surveyed using a Trimble VRS differential GPS accurate to +/-0.01m. The trenches were opened by hand in a controlled manner under direct archaeological supervision. All topsoil deposits were removed in level spits. All excavations of archaeological deposits were undertaken manually. A soil sampling programme was undertaken consisting of bulk soil samples for the identification of plant macro-fossils, small animal bones and other small artefacts. All samples were taken from appropriate archaeological deposits, in accordance with the WSI and Historic England guidelines. All of the test pits in Area A and the majority of test pits in Area B were dug through a concrete floor surface (008 and 011) below which was a levelling layer (009 and 012). These surfaces were clearly remains of the now demolished hangars. Subsoil was occasionally encountered (BH8, BH11, BH12 and BH19). In Areas A and B the underlying geology was typically reached at a depth of between 0.05m and 0.23m in test pits which were not excavated through the concrete surfaces (BH18 and BH19) whereas it was only encountered at a depth of up to 0.65m (BH14) in pits excavated below the concrete, this would suggest that significant truncation has taken place across this part of the site, almost certainly in relation to the construction of the former hangers. In Area C, concrete slabs (004 and 007) were observed between the topsoil and subsoil in Test Pits 2 and 5. These are all that remains of series of barracks, visible in aerial photographs from 2003 (Douglas 2023), which were demolished by 2010. Subsoil was noted in two of the test pits (BH2, BH3 and BH6), which may indicate some potential for survival of archaeological remains in the area. No archaeological remains were encountered in the test pits.