Description

The monument comprises the remains of a hut circle of late Bronze-Age or Iron-Age date, visible as a low, grass-covered penannular stony bank. It lies on a gentle NE-facing slope, at 100m above sea level.

The hut circle measures 4.1m in diameter within a stony bank up to 1m in thickness and 0.2m in height. There is an entrance on the ENE.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises a circle on plan, centred on the monument, to include the remains described and an area around within which evidence relating to its construction and use may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. Specifically excluded is the top 0.2m of the track running past the hut-circle on the west, where this falls into the scheduled area, to allow for its maintenance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

Cultural Significance

The monument's cultural significance can be expressed as follows:

Intrinsic characteristics

The monument consists of the well-preserved remains of a later prehistoric roundhouse, with upstanding remains dating to the first or second millennium BC. Given the excellent preservation of the upstanding remains, it is likely that archaeologically significant deposits relating to construction, use and abandonment of the structures remain in place. In addition, it is likely that deposits sealed below the surface survive that could provide data relating to the later prehistoric environment. The site has considerable potential to enhance our understanding of later prehistoric roundhouses and the daily lives of the people who occupied them.

Contextual characteristics

The monument is a representative of a fairly common class of later prehistoric remains in Aberdeenshire, but such monuments rarely survive in a lowland setting. Much of the surrounding lowland landscape has been heavily improved and this monument's importance is enhanced by its fortuitous survival. The hut-circle's importance is enhanced by its location in an area of at least 50 small cairns, some of which may be contemporaneous with it. Together with other lowland roundhouses, such as the ones 300-600m to the SE, this hut circle can contribute to our understanding of the nature of later prehistoric settlement and its chronological, economic and social relationship to similar settlements in the uplands.

National Importance

The monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to make a significant addition to the understanding of the past, in particular Bronze- or Iron-Age society and the nature of later prehistoric domestic and agricultural practice. The good preservation and the survival of marked field characteristics enhance this potential. The loss of this example would significantly impede our ability to understand later prehistoric societies in Aberdeen City in particular and Scotland in general.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS record the monument as NJ81NW182, Beechfield: hut circle; small cairns and in Aberdeenshire SMR as NJ81NW0128, West Balbithan, cairns; hut-circles; rig and furrow.

References:

RCAHMS 2007, IN THE SHADOW OF BENNACHIE: A FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY OF DONSIDE, ABERDEENSHIRE, Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland