6.2 Transcribed Aerial Photograph 6.3 Grid (20X20m.) Plot of field 6.4 Magnetic Plot October 2000

The Society were contacted in July 1999 by R.C.A.H.M.S. with a request to examine, using geophysical equipment, a field to the west of East Bonhard, West Lothian w h c h had shown, in a 1996 aerial photograph, a crop-mark whlch suggested that a souterrain with one or more round houses might be present.

cooperation of the Centre for Field Archaeology (at that time still part of The University of Edinburgh) and the Geology and Geophysics Department of the University.Ina d d i t i o n t o t h e g e o p h y s i c a l m e a s u r e m e n t s p a r t of the area was field-walked.

No clear indications were found of a souterrain and although the magnetometry printouts show some round shapes these did not interpret as round-houses. Excavation at two points at w hch coincident resistive and magnetic 'highs' were indicated on the respective printouts showed a very shallow topsoilwitha v a r i a b l e subsoil and glacial erratic sedimentary and igneous stones.

The crop-mark that was at the west end o f the first trench could have been due to a well draining sandy- gravel abutting onto a water retaining clay subsoil however the shape of the high resistance area &d not match the crop-mark well. The indications o f magnetic anomalies, in the two trenches excavated, can only be ascribed to igneous glacial erratics.

The main crop-mark at East Bonhard lies on the south side o f a slight ridge at N.G.R.NT01807936 in a field that slopes gently to the east with a reasonable all round view; a plausible position for an Iron Age round- house. The field is farmed byM r John Graham of Walton as East Bonhard is now only aresidence. The field has been regularly planted with barley allowing access for a number of months through autumn into the early months of the following year.

Geologically the field lies in the Carboniferous ~MdlstoneG rit Series in the Limestone Coal Group of sandstones, siltstones, mudstones, coals, ironstones and seatclays. A minor fault runs east-west through Bonhard Mill and along the northern side of the field.'The strata is inclined resulting in two coal and one ironstone seam being shown as surfacing in the field in the B.G.S. solid geology map (Ref.1). Due to many coal and ironstone seams surfacing in the locality glacial action has spread a mixture of these over the landscape; small unrecorded workings of these seams occurred in antiquity. At the commencement of the survey the depth o f the topsoil was unknown.

The field is bounded on the west side by a minor road that runs into Linlithgow; this road and the other field boundaries, with one possible exception, do not appear to have changed sinceat least the O.S. map of 1855. The eastern border could have changed minimally probably atthetime that a garden and paddock were created at East Bonhard. A number of aerial photographs have been taken in flights over East Bonhard but it was onlyinthe 1996 flight that the crop-mark was evident (Fig.6.1).

The oblique crop-mark photograph was transcribed and supplied by R.C.A.H.iM.S.(Fig6 . 2 ) so that the posi- tion of the main and some subsidiary crop-marks could be transferred to a field map dwided into a 20 by 20 metre square grid (Fig.6.3) The base line for the grid was takena s an electric pylon line that crosses the field thus allowing the grid to be re-established rapidly after a crop had been harvested.

The first attempt at area ground resistance measurement was made on 12 February2 0 0 0 with C.F.A. using the Geoscan ResearchRM15 equipment with a PA5 four-probe array. Readings were taken, at metre intervals, over the squaresFand G 3 and4 . The survey was abandoned after a snowstorm gave a 5cm coating which melted rapidly and water-logged the field. It was deemed not worth taking further readings in the spring due to the high water retention o f the ground.