Internet Archaeol 5. Wickham-Jones & Dalland. 1.1

1.0 Introduction

For the construction of a second 18-hole golf course at Craighead, Fife Ness, large areas of topsoil were to be removed in advance of landscaping operations. A part of the planning conditions for this development was the requirement of an archaeological watching brief throughout the earth-moving works. Headland Archaeology Ltd was commissioned by Crail Golfing Society to undertake this work which was carried out during the summer of 1996.

The work was scheduled to allow all areas stripped of topsoil to be examined for archaeological features. In total some 35 hectares were investigated. This large area contained only three sites of archaeological significance and they covered a total of some 75 m² or 0.2%, a small fraction of the area investigated. The three sites were all examined by detailed archaeological excavation. The sites comprised a large pit and post-holes of late prehistoric date, a pit containing flint tools and bronze age pottery, and a small mesolithic camp site, the subject of this paper. A report on the other two sites was published in Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Dalland 1996).

The camp site was discovered near the thirteenth green where topsoil stripping revealed a spread of discoloured soil and a pit. Associated with these features were carbonised hazelnut shells and a small lithic assemblage which, because of the presence of several microliths, indicated that the site might be mesolithic.

1.1 Location

Figure 1: Location of site

The site was situated at NGR NO 6365 0951 on the south side of Fife Ness some 300m south-west of Foreland Head, the north-eastern headland of Fife. It was located 8m back from the edge of the low sea cliffs on the lower parts of the late glacial raised beach at c.15m OD. The land rises gently inland from the site culminating in a small summit at 30m OD some 700m to the west.