Evidence of a Stone Age disaster under burger joint

By ALISTAIR MUNRO
Published on 08/09/2012 03:03

Eight thousand years ago, one of the most terrifying natural disasters hit the British Isles.

And the remains of a middle Stone Age mesolithic camp destroyed by a tsunami are buried under a McDonald’s restaurant in Inverness city centre.

Channel 4’s Time Team has travelled to the site as they tell the story of the tsunami. Its links with Inverness would never have been unearthed were it not for the arrival of the McDonald’s, as artefacts were found at the site when it was excavated in 1979.

Presenter Phil Harding said: “Tsunamis are something you see on TV, so when I heard about this one in Inverness, I said ‘get away’. You realise when you look into it that it’s phenomenal.”

Filming took place at the restaurant this week.

Harding added: “We have been visiting site all over the country, but it’s good to come to Inverness as it’s one of the few places in the British Isles where you can document the tsunami.

“This site here has got that direct relationship with the middle Stone Age.”

Although tsunami deposits can be found across Scotland, the McDonald’s site is one of the few that is overlying stone age technology. Artefacts found include microliths, stone tools used to pull food from shells, scrape hides and cut food.