ON the website for her farm and stables, Rosie Morrison says the rural site has “a long history”.

But she had no idea how old until she turned over a portion of ground to an archaeological team.

Now just two weeks of work has turned up evidence that the Lanarkshire land has been in continuous use for the last 6000 years.

Northlight Heritage had been looking for the remnants of a Celtic house once thought to have stood there.

But while the soil did contain relics from the Iron Age, it also held items from the Victorian, Medieval, Bronze and Stone Age periods, allowing the team to establish an unbroken line of usage dating back to 3800BC.

Dr Paul Murtagh says the results are far beyond what was expected, unique in this part of Scotland and prove the area was home to some of “the very first families in Scotland”.

And landowner Morrison, who has lived at Draffan Farm in South Lanarkshire since 2009, said: “It’s mindblowing.

“The amount of stuff they have found and the time period they have gone across is amazing. We’ve just been walking around on it. The idea that there’s been people using this site for so long makes you feel like you are just the next step.”

The results are all the more remarkable for the fact that the team, which is working with Glasgow University, had no intention to dig at Draffan Farm.

An operation, which is part of Northlight’s Clutha archaeology project, had been planned in another field nearby until that landowner revoked permission. Murtagh told The National: “It’s unusual that we have got evidence for that 6000 years of human history. There have been relatively few digs in this part of the country, compared to places like Orkney. It’s an area we don’t know much about.

“We have written evidence going back to 1142. It seems like there’s definitely been farming there in Medieval times. We were looking for a potential Iron Age Celtic house, which we found. As well as that we have found evidence of Neolithic, Stone Age activity.

“The very first families in Scotland were here. We got very excited about these finds.”

The finds include coins, coal waste, Neolithic pottery thought to have been decorated with animal bone, and remnants of what is thought to be a kiln.

Unlike at similar digs where the earth and its contents have moved over time, the oldest items were preserved in a pocket underneath Medieval remains at a depth of around 60cm.

It is thought that the use of the area – as grassland for horses – prevented them from becoming dislodged during ploughing and other activity.

Animals bones, thought to be a dog burial from more recent times, were also discovered.

On the red and black pottery shards, Murtagh, who developed the Clutha programme, said: “They’ve gathered it and put it in pits. It’s very specific.”

On the area’s usage, he said: “The soil is sands and gravel, it’s good farming land.

“But the soils in this area are also quite acidic, which means they tend to rot things away.

“The aim for us was to establish the Iron Age landscape – everything else was a bonus.

The finds removed will be taken to Glasgow University for further examination and may eventually go on display at a local museum.

Those working on the project included students, participants on the Phoenix Futures drug and alcohol recovery programme and volunteers from the community, including Dennis White from neighbouring village Blackwood.

The Northlight team, which aims to “make heritage matter”, met with residents on Saturday about the outcome of the project.

White, who chairs Blackwood Community Council, said: “People lived here long before the Egyptian pyramids were built – that means something to people, they can relate to that.

“When I saw the biggest piece come out of the ground, the first thing was to ask ‘can I touch it?’

“I just wanted to connect to the timescale of human habitation in the area I live in.

He added: “It’s absolutely amazing. The fact that the finds were jumping back all that time is mind boggling.”