The Lowick Heritage Group established an archaeology sub group in 2015. We have set ourselves an objective to determine the possible original site of the village, if such exists, using the extensive archaeological evidence available to us. We’ve called the project ‘Where Was Lowick?’. Three factors are in our favour: the professional leadership provided by Dr Kristian Pedersen, lecturer at Edinburgh University, the vast open areas of land on which our predecessors lived, hunted and farmed and, perhaps most importantly, the current local landowners who have kindly given us their permission to carry out our investigations.

It is also very likely that the early Medieval people who lived around here did so on sites that had been inhabited from much earlier times. We know with certainty from visible archaeological evidence that people have lived around Lowick since at least Iron Age times, that is, around 2,500 years ago and probably even earlier. Recent activities by the archaeology group have unearthed evidence of a Bronze Age community with one find of a flint blade that could possibly have been made by a neolithic farmer. This would suggest that people possibly farmed here almost 4,500 years ago, taking advantage of the fertile soil that the last ice age left behind.

The group has also found a number of 8000 year old flint blades just to the east of the village that had been made by nomadic hunter gatherers during the Mesolithic period. 

Please click on one of the projects below for more details

Archaeology

Hunting Hall

Our main project, Hunting Hall Farm has revealed compelling signs of prehistoric settlement, including ring ditches and vegetation marks consistent with Iron Age roundhouses. Excavations between 2019 and 2025, sparked by the discovery of a Bronze Age axe head, uncovered a far richer archaeological story than first imagined.

Kentstone Farm

Kentstone Farm has revealed a multivallate earthwork and clear evidence of Bronze Age, Iron Age and Anglo‑Saxon activity through surveys in 2019 and excavations in 2022.

Dryburn Lime Kiln

The Dryburn Limekiln, a Grade II listed remnant of Lowick’s once‑busy 18th–19th century lime industry, has been cleared by local volunteers to make this important piece of industrial heritage more visible.