EDO6070 - Castle Court, Osprey Quay, Portland; evaluation 2008

Two test pits were excavated by hand on a sloping strip of land immediately east of the naval canteen building, and three were dug by machine within the footprint of a demolished structure in the compound between Castle Road and the canteen. The test pits revealed a degree of relatively modern disturbance. In places undisturbed clays identified as 'Head' deposits resulting from periglacial down-slope erosion were recorded. The excavator notes that deposits of this type on Portland are thought to have been stable from around the beginning of the Mesolithic; it is possible, therefore, that Palaeolithic land surfaces may survive beneath.