Ian has been working for CFA since January 1997. In that time, he has conducted a wide range of archaeological work, principally across Scotland. He has considerable experience in identifying and excavating a wide range of site types of different periods.
His experience includes Environmental Assessment studies and he has also directed and co-directed excavations and surveys of many sites throughout Scotland, undertaken in advance of pipelines, houses, reservoirs and water-works, wind-farms, quarries, telecommunications towers and industrial developments, conducting both desk-based and field studies and overseeing the production of final reports. These sites range in time from the Mesolithic to the pre-recent, including medieval and industrial sites.
Key sites include directing the excavation of prehistoric houses in advance of cable-laying, e.g. at Ballypriorbeg, Islandmagee, Antrim, Northern Ireland and the excavation of a burial site and lithic scatters at Stoneyhill Farm, Peterhead in advance of landfill operations. Excavations at Lesmurdie Road, Elgin in advance of a housing development included multi-period burials, a ring-ditch and two adjoining Mesolithic structures. He excavated a range of sites affected by the upgrading of the A830 near Mallaig in 2005.
Research projects, for example ‘Scotlands First Settlers’, were undertaken in the Inner Hebrides during 1999 and 2000 and extensive research excavations have also been conducted at Loch na Berie at Valtos on Lewis, from 1993-5. He is involved in the Dun Carron Fort Project, an educational reconstruction of a medieval Fort being undertaken by the Clanranald Trust near Stirling.
Surveying experience includes extensive fieldwalking and monument recording in the Outer Hebrides between 1994 and the present, including for AMEC/Lewis Wind Power in 2003 and 2005. Projects covering both the blacklands (peat areas) and the shell sands of the machair coastal strip have been undertaken.
Ian also has considerable and supervisory experience of post-excavation work, principally comprising the wet-sieving of bulk archaeological samples and the laboratory sorting processes that follow it. He has also conducted laboratory testing on archaeological samples.
Ian is the author and co-author of many CFA reports and publications. |
