Update - September 2023
Scottish Ministers have granted scheduled monument consent for quarrying at Sheep Hill fort. Ministers’ decision follows the call-in of the scheduled monument consent application in September 2022.
The consent has conditions attached requiring the developer to undertake full archaeological excavation in advance of the work so that the fort and associated buried archaeological features can be fully recorded. Analysis and publication of the results will also be required.
Further background on this case is in our statement of November 2021.
Update – December 2022
In September 2022 Scottish Ministers called in the application for their own determination. The application has been submitted to the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA) and is being examined by a reporter, who will submit a report to Scottish Ministers for their consideration and determination.
Further details of the case are available on the DPEA website.
Statement – November 2021
At Sheep Hill, the area that has planning permission for quarrying contains a prehistoric fort that is designated as a scheduled monument.
When we received an application for scheduled monument consent, we aimed to find a solution that would allow the fort to be excavated by archaeologists and recorded and understood before any quarrying could take place.
Background
At Historic Environment Scotland, it is our role to promote the best outcomes for Scotland’s important historic sites and places. We are responsible for designating scheduled monuments and assessing development proposals that affect these sites.
Applications for change are made through a process called scheduled monument consent. In September 2021, we received an application to quarry the prehistoric fort on Sheep Hill, near Milton, Dumbarton. An existing quarry operates next to the fort, and the owner would like to extend.
Scheduled monument consent is separate from any other consent or permission process, including planning permission. Some works will require both planning permission and scheduled monument consent. This is the case at Sheep Hill.
The situation affecting Sheep Hill is very unusual. Planning permission for the quarry has been in place since 1949.
The principle of quarrying the site
The Secretary of State and more recently Historic Scotland have accepted the principle that the fort would be removed by quarrying on several occasions:
- Planning permission for quarrying an area including the fort was given by the Secretary of State in 1949.
- In 1973 the quarry owner served three months notice of the intention to quarry the monument and the Secretary of State accepted this.
- This principle was established for a third time when Historic Scotland granted consent for quarrying and for archaeological excavation in 2002. The application contained a proposal for a mitigation excavation leading to analysis and publication. Historic Scotland imposed a condition to ensure that if the works went ahead the excavation would be conducted in accordance with the method statement in the application.
This means that there is a history of government repeatedly accepting that the fort would be quarried.
The scheduled monument consent application
The application is for tree felling, removal of soil and drift deposits and quarrying operations. The quarrying would wholly remove all archaeological structures, layers and other materials as well as the underlying rock. The application does not include any proposals for an archaeological excavation before quarrying.
What is Historic Environment Scotland’s position?
This is an exceptional case where the principle of quarrying has been accepted by government on several occasions. Planning permission is in place and scheduled monument consent has been granted previously. These are material considerations and we consider it is therefore not reasonable to refuse scheduled monument consent now.
Our position is that we propose to grant scheduled monument consent but that the developer must put in place an adequate programme of archaeological survey, excavation and recording before quarrying can go ahead. This must then be followed by appropriate analysis and publication so that the fort’s history can be shared with the public and made available for researchers.
You can read more about how we have reached this position and the conditions that we have asked the developer to comply with to ensure that archaeological survey, excavation and recording takes place before any quarrying in our report of handing available on our Historic Environment Portal.
What happens now?
If we propose to grant consent for an application which is not the ‘minimum necessary consistent with conserving the cultural significance of the monument’ as set out in The Scheduled Monument Consent (Notification of Applications) Direction 2015 then we must notify Scottish Ministers. We have completed this process and Scottish Ministers are considering the case.
In terms of next steps, Scottish Ministers can return the case to us and we proceed as set out above or they can ‘call in’ the case for their own determination. This process usually takes around four weeks, and we expect to hear in mid-January 2022.
We will provide an update once we hear from Scottish Ministers.