Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route

Headland Archaeology provided a comprehensive programme of archaeological services for the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR), one of the largest road construction projects in Scotland. Our contract, valued at approximately £3.6 million, included Archaeological Clerk of Works, evaluation, excavation and geophysical survey across the 58 km route.

Our Archaeological Clerk of Works managed and coordinated all archaeological activities across the route, liaising with the construction team, Transport Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council to ensure that all archaeological requirements were met without causing unnecessary delays to the construction programme.

The archaeological programme identified and investigated a significant number of previously unrecorded sites, including prehistoric settlements, burial cairns, agricultural landscapes and post-medieval farmsteads. The results have made a major contribution to our understanding of the archaeology of north-east Scotland.

The result of several years of work was the production of two books in early 2019. ‘The Land was Forever: 15,000 years in North-East Scotland’, published by Oxbow Books provides a wealth of information which can be used by commercial and academic archaeologists alike in the future. ‘Highway through History’ is aimed at a more general reader and was distributed to hundreds of schools and libraries in the Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City region. It is also available to download as a free pdf here.