Sett size?

[jess_b]

Hello, i wonder if someone could help me - this is a bit of a strange one.

I'm an archaeology student and for my dissertation i've carried out a geophysical survey. (yes, :-/ timeteam style)

A large anomaly has appeared in an area i know there to be rabbit burrowing. However, its 30m in diameter and i'd be surprised if bunnies could create such disturbance. I'm told there may once have been a badger sett in this spot. would that be a feasable size for a sett?

Thanks very much!

jess

[Steve]

Hi Jess

The tunnels and chambers of long established setts can sometimes cover very large areas, and it is certainly feasible that a sett could cover an area of 30 metres in diameter. Four setts excavated in the 1970s and (under licence) in the 1990s were found to cover 304, 525, 704 and 740 square metres. The late Ernest Neal knew a sett in Somerset which covered an area of 1575 square metres (45 x 35 metres).

But is your underground anomoly an ancient badger sett?

I would have thought that if there been such a large sett there, even if it became disused and then derelict quite some time ago, there would still be obvious 'humps and hollows' corresponding with spoil heaps and tunnel entrance sites respectively. Unless of course the ground surface has been ploughed over since the disappearance of the badgers.

Also, depending on the nature of the soil and the depth of the tunnels (and badger tunnels can go down as deep as 4 metres in some case!), open tunnels may still exist underground too (and may be detectable by ground-probing radar for example).

Do let us know if you find any evidence which would show whether or not the anomoly is likely to have been a sett.

Steve

[gigs]

I agree with Steve. At 'my' sett the furthest outlying entrances are 20-30 yards from the central area in opposite directions. The central area is about 20 yards across with at least 20 entrances new and old. One tunnel, I am convinced, dives under a sunken footpath which is about 15 feet below the general ground level.

Gigs