Description

The monuments are a ditched homestead and a palisaded enclosure of the Later Bronze Agee/Iron Age. They appear as cropmarks in an arable field adjacent to the A79 road, just N of Prestwick airport. The homestead measures about 40m in diameter within a ditch up to 3m in breadth. Within the enclosed area the wall trench of a timber house c. 13m in diameter is visible.

A further timber fence trench joins the house and the ditch, subdividing the enclosed area. About 15% of the enclosure has been damaged by road construction. About 40m to the NNE of the homestead is an oval enclosure measuring 50m by 40m internally, defined by a narrow palisade trench. No internal features are visible. An area measuring 150m (NE-SW) by 80m transversely is proposed for scheduling.

Very few enclosures of either type are known in SW Scotland; the few that are known to survive, in the main, as plough-truncated sites. These few sites hold all the information at present available on lowland settlement of this period on the SW coast. The excavation of plough-truncated sites of this type in Lothian and Central have shown how much valuable information can survive.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monuments are of national importance to the theme of Later Bronze Age/Iron Age settlement and economy. The pair of sites is of particular interest because of their juxtaposition; it is likely that the homestead replaced the enclosure. The examination of this relationship would be of great value.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

The monument is recorded in the RCAHMS as NS 32 NE 23.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland