BRIDGE OF ALLAN-ON-SEA

In early 2020, during one of the stricter periods of lockdown, a member of the public spotted a line of eroding shells 2m below the current ground surface in the banks of the Allan Water at Bridge of Allan, near Stirling. He contacted one of the authors, Murray Cook, Stirling council’s archaeologist. Was this an eroding prehistoric shell midden? Murray took the opportunity to inspect the location, where he identified a band of oyster shells in the riverbank stratigraphy.

A sample (see opposite page) was sent to Catherine Smith of Alder Archaeology for a species assessment which concluded that the sample species was , a native European oyster. It was