Megget Reservoir lies just outside the Peeblesshire boundary. However, the Tweed survey was continued over the Talla watershed because unusually low water levels in the dry summer of 2003 provided an opportunity to inspect parts of the reservoir floor not normally accessible.
Megget is typical of the Southern Uplands reservoirs where the landscape is rich in archaeological sites. Two tower houses at the former settlement of Cramalt now lie deep below the water. The usual range of prehistoric sites was found such as burnt mounds, cairns groups and ring enclosures (Ward, 2004a; Ward 2004b; Ward 2005).
Water levels within the reservoirs routinely fall during the Summer, by some 5 to 10m in the case of Megget, and recover during the late Autumn and early winter.
As a result, considerable areas of the reservoir floor are exposed to the possibility of erosion by wave action. The extent and location of the damage depends on wind direction and strength but can be severe, involving the cutting away of the original ground surface and the formation of beach ridges (see picture of Site 16).
Some sites, lying in protected areas, may lose only surface soil and vegetation: others can be completely destroyed. As a result, any archaeological site at a depth of up to 10-12m below the high water mark is at risk and its excavation is justified.
In Megget, a number of features that lay in areas where there was clear evidence of active erosion were excavated.
The interior of a small ring enclosure produced abundant charcoal from surface spreads. There were no finds, however, and the function of the site is unclear. At a second location, a single sherd of Late Neolithic Impressed Ware was found partly exposed in the bank of the reservoir. Excavation nearby of a surviving patch of the original ground surface yielded further but less diagnostic pottery, perhaps indicating the site of a Late Neolithic settlement.
Megget Reports
- Megget Reservoir Survey | 2005 | 347KB | A part survey of the Megget Valley after the discovery of pre-historic sites within the reservoir during a period of low water level in 2004.
- Megget Reservoir | June 2004 | 2.31MB | The outcome of an inspection of the shorelines within Megget Reservoir in June 2004. Sites included cairns, burnt mounds, circular stone features and other more ambiguous sites.
- Megget Excavations – Interim Report | 2004 | 2.87MB | The excavations of features and enclosures recently discovered has shown the area to have been occupied during the Late Neolithic and probably the Bronze Age.
