Sicar Rock, Dunbar, East Lotian

WA Coastal & Marine was commissioned by Historic Scotland to undertake an Undesignated Site Assessment of the reported findspot of a number of pierced stone artefacts on the seabed off Dunbar Harbour in East Lothian. The site was first discovered by local divers in 1998. A total of six partial or complete pierced stones together with a metal fragment and a possibly natural stone fragment have been recovered by local divers. Local divers also report that at least one of the stones remains in situ. WA Coastal & Marine undertook a three-phase investigation of the site. The first of these was a programme of baseline data gathering followed by a dive survey and a final phase of data analysis. The baseline research carried out for the project has helped to enhance our knowledge of this challenging site. The previously recovered stones are currently either in the East Lothian Museums Service collection in Haddington or in the Dunbar Town House Museum in Dunbar. Four of those in Haddington were made available by the museum staff and were resurveyed using photogrammetry. WA Coastal & Marine were also asked by Historic Scotland to undertake a programme of liaison with the members of BSAC21, the sub-aqua club that had discovered and investigated the site. This helped to establish as far as practical the location and nature of the remaining material on the seabed. The BSAC21 members generously provided a large quantity of background material including sketch plans and elevations of the site as well as depth profiles and correspondence relating to the discovery and publication of the artefacts. It had been several years since the main investigations of the site by the club but fortunately BSAC21 carried out a dive at the site several weeks in advance of the WA Coastal & Marine survey and confirmed that at least one of the anchors was still present. For further information on this site and other sites around Scotland visit: http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/