Bob Douglas, Courier. Excavation at the Signal Tower Museum, Arbroath. L-r, Curtaor Colin Easton with Scott McCombe beside the excavated part of the old courtyard.
Contractors busy on the opening stages of a £425,000 refurbishment of the Signal Tower Museum in Arbroath have come across a mystery that would offer a challenge to Tony Robinson and his Time Team.
The museum, which was originally the shore station for the Bell Rock lighthouse, is undergoing a major refit in advance of the 200th anniversary of the commissioning of the beacon which sits on the Inchcape reef, 11 miles off Arbroath.
The work will include the creation of displays focusing on Arbroath’s maritime heritage, and particularly the town’s association with Robert Stevenson’s iconic lighthouse, and one of the features proposed is a recreation of the base course of the structure.
But when plant operator Scott McCombe, who works for Kirriemuir firm THL, was using his digger to remove the modern concrete slabs in the museum’s courtyard, his eye was caught by what appeared to be a far older course of underlying stonework.
Work on this part of the refurbishment project has now been suspended while the age and purpose of the rough-laid cobbles can be determined.
A spokeswoman for Angus Council said the discovery was still being investigated.
