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Remains of a long barrow, oriented east-west and located on the edge of a low terrace above the river North Esk. The wedge-shaped burial mound of scraped up earth and turf is circa 80 m long, with the east end 28 m wide, the west end 10 m wide and an overall height of 2.5 m. Probably one of the best preserved mounds of this type in the northeast of Scotland. A thick broken flake of red Buchan flint was found in a rabbit burrow circa 10 m from the east end and 2 m up the south side (SAAUM 1978-1) and a thin broken white flake from a vehicle track over the barrow, circa 15 m from the west end and 2 m up the west side (SAAUM 1978-2). A field survey was undertaken by CFA Field School in April 1999. This comprised two non-invasive surveys and a topographical survey which included the modern trapezoidal enclosure within which the barrow lies. This survey noted the low mound, immediately to the east of the barrow, of undetermined age or purpose and also that the barrow had been built with its southern side along the edge of a low ridge, making it taller when viewed from the south. Two flints were recovered from eroded sections of the plantation banks surrounding the barrow, one to the east and one to the southeast. One flint is a chunk of yellow flint, probably from knapping and the other is a fragment of a plano-convex knife, of yellow-grey flint, but unusually broken and small. It is of a kind often found at funerary monuments, such as Dalladies. The topographical survey has provided the first detailed record of the barrow and its environs. Resistivity imaging carried out in 1999 has revealed key elements of the structure of the long barrow, including side revetment walls, a flat façade and possible mortuary structures, confirming that the barrow at Capo is of a similar morphology to the nearby (excavated) long barrow at Dalladies. The resistivity survey has demonstrated that rabbit burrowing and the roots of the tree stumps that covered the barrow have had little effect on the integrity of the major structural elements of the monument (the revetments and façade). However, it is not possible to assess the more subtle damage, such as mixing of archaeological layers, which may have been caused. It is concluded that, whilst resistivity imaging at the survey density employed here is time-consuming and would not be appropriate at many sites, as a management tool and as a means to explore sites that are unavailable for excavation, such as scheduled ancient monuments, it has been demonstrated to be of considerable value.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)