School will preserve historical dwellings

West of Scotland Archaeology Service (WoSAS) has been commissioned by East Renfrewshire council to carry out excavation investigations to identify and record ancient dwellings and artefacts for posterity before construction of the new school begins.

WoSAS consultant Martin O’Hare DRS gives The Extra an insight into some of the site’s configuration.

He explained: “Three of the buildings actually survive as upstanding structures, and there are traces of some of the others that are known to have existed from comparison with historical maps, though the fact that the bedrock is quite high across much of the site means that others have been almost completely removed.

“Of the buildings that do survive, two contain what appear to be blocked-up fireplaces, which would suggest that they were occupied by people rather than animals or used for storage.

“For two of the buildings, the floor levels have largely gone, with only fragments of a flagstone surface remaining in places while, in the third building, the floors are composed of a mix of flagstones and concrete. In terms of the artefacts recovered from the site, these are mostly around the turn of the 1900s.

“A few fragments of late 1700s pottery have also been recovered, along with a couple of pieces of post-medieval reduced ware, a type of fabric common to that period.

“There are also fragments of plates, teacups and creaming dishes, as well as a fragment of a 19th-century ceramic marmalade jar.”