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Latitude: 58.5532 / 58°33'11"N
Longitude: -3.1448 / 3°8'41"W
OS Eastings: 333475
OS Northings: 963355
OS Grid: ND334633
Mapcode National: GBR L6L3.XT4
Mapcode Global: WH6D1.N8NX
Entry Name: Green Hill of Clayton,settlement WSW of Hill of Clayton
Scheduled Date: 18 November 1988
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM4593
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Secular: settlement, including deserted, depopulated and townships
Location: Wick
County: Highland
Electoral Ward: Wick and East Caithness
Traditional County: Caithness
The monument lies in moorland and its main component is a turf covered mound 20m to 30m in diameter and 1m to 2m high. It has been disturbed, quite possibly by excavation which may be the source of finds donated to NMAS in 1908-9; but the finds are recorded only as coming from a mound on Keiss Moor. Footings of some drystone structure are visible in the NE part of the Mound.
To the NW of the main mound is a kidney shaped peat or turf mound 10m in diameter with large stones round its edges, while to the NE of the main mound is a mound 6m in diameter and 0.8m high and immediately to the N is a heavy peat covered mound measuring 16m x 8m and 1.6m high. 20m to the W is yet another mound, 7m in diameter and 1m high.
The complex is reminiscent of the Kirkstones nearby, which is a settlement, and possibly church, of pre clearance date. The finds reported in 1908-9 from Kiess Moor consist of artefacts appropriate to a similar broad medieval to early post-medieval date for Green Hill of Clayton.
There are traces of cultivation in the area around Green Hill, and 40m to its W is a turf banked enclosure which is not included in the scheduling proposal since it is believed that the area proposed should contain adequate evidence of agricultural aspects of the settlement.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Such settlement is extremely rarely identifiable in the uplands of N Scotland, where the predominant recognised remains are prehistoric or of the clearance period. Its abandonment has frozen evidence of a stage of development of N Scottish settlement, probably originally common. The monument is of national importance not only for its bearing on upland settlement but also for its relevance to the likely predominant settlement type throughout N Scotland in the period between the Norse incursions and the overwhelming adoption of building styles typified by the clearance settlements. It is thus of national importance for its archaeological potential in studies of Medieval and post-Medieval settlement.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
RCAHMS records the monument as ND36SW 7.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Other nearby scheduled monuments