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Prehistoric flint-working pits comprising large pits, 2-3m in depth, dug into the Buchan flint deposit. Primary flint knapping debris and characteristic quarzite cobble anvils were abundant, but no finished implements were located during excavations in 1994. They survive as pits 15' to 30' in diameter now largely ploughed to saucer-shaped depressions up to 55' in diameter. Two of them (I and II on the plan, which shows only the most obvious huts) were partially excavated by Graham-Smith in 1918-19, disclosing a very light walling composed of pebbles and large stones surrounding the excavated area. It had probably never risen much above ground level. The interiors produced no domestic refuse but Hut II had obviously been used as a flint work-shop since it produced hearths, flint flakes and stone anvils. Stone anvils occur plentifully in the area, as do nodules, cores and broken flakes, but no completed implements were found. Childe compares the site with those of the flint workers of East Anglia and the South Downs referring to the excavations as 'pits' rather than 'huts' or 'shelters' and tentatively assigning it to the Beaker period. Similar sites occur elsewhere in the area, notably at Den of Boddam. A few of the hollows indicated on the plan of Graham-Smith are still faintly discernible but insufficient survives for accurate survey. The farmer at Moss-side (NJ 9841) has ploughed the field in each of the three years he has been at the farm but has found nothing. Numerous pieces of flint were noted at the time of investigation. Flints from Skelmuir are in Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, donated by G S Graham-Smith (72.40). (Undated) information in Museum Accessions Register. Four machine test-pits were dug in 1993 to investigate the geological and archaeological deposits at this location, where previous archaeological excavations took place in 1918. One test-pit was placed so as to partially re-excavate one of the 1918 trenches and samples of knapping debris and anvilstones were recovered. Further archaeological and geological research excavations were carried out in 1997. The investigations revealed in one area a circular shaft, 3.2m deep and 3.9m in diameter near the surface narrowing to 1.4-1.8m in diameter for most of its depth. Given an absence of artefacts it is suggested to have been a test pit to search for flint bearing gravel. A second area investigated was almost entirely covered by extraction pits, with masses of flint knapping debris in their upper fills.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)