Ian Suddaby

A programme of archaeological fieldwork was undertaken in advance of construction work for a short stretch of dual carriageway on the A75 between Newton Stewart and Glenluce. The route comprises areas of improved pasture on drumlins and peat bog within the interdrumlin basins. Fieldwork included peat coring within these inter-drumlin basins. A bridge and other features on the disused Portpatrick & Castle Douglas Line were recorded during a standing building survey. Other areas of the route were investigated by trial trenches and a burnt mound was discovered. Later excavation revealed that, although neither a hearth nor a trough lay within the excavated area and the site was clearly horizontally truncated, in terms of location, plan morphology, constituent deposits and suggested date, it conformed to others in South-West Scotland and more widely. Two main phases of activity were identified with deposits of burnt stone being either preceded or succeeded by a series of posts, which may represent an early medieval fence line. A single flint flake was recovered. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the burnt mound was probably formed in the later first millennium AD.