Description

The monument consists of two groups of house platforms together with a number of small cairns. The more westerly group contains eight well-preserved platforms, each being approximately circular in plan and consisting of an area levelled by digging into the slope at the rear and throwing material forward to create a platform protruding slightly from the slope of the hill.

Platforms in this group range from 12.1m to 21.3m in width. The more easterly group has twelve well-preserved platforms, each formed as described above, with widths ranging from 11.2m to 19.3m. On a terrace above the first group of platforms there is a group of at least fourteen cairns, none greater than 5m in diameter and 0.7m in height.

To the east of the second group of platforms are the remains of a single round cairn 6.5m in diameter and 0.4m in height. The area to be scheduled has a maximum length of 700m from NW to SE and a maximum transverse measurement of 180m. It is bounded on the S by the unfenced road from Midlock to Whelphill, excluding the disused quarry beside the road. At its western end it includes part of an old plantation. The area is as delineated in red on the attached map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as one of the finest examples of an unenclosed platform settlement in Scotland. It has a large number and wide range of size of house platforms arranged in two groups, and these, together with associated small cairns, form a substantial area of late prehistoric landscape in a relatively intact condition. The intervening ground has been included within the area proposed for scheduling to ensure the preservation of this landscape, which is itself of national importance in that it demonstrates the organisation of individual elements within the settlement pattern.

The platform sites and the cairns will contain important archaeological evidence available upon excavation, and together with the intervening hillside have an important potential for the recovery of environmental and economic evidence relating to the period of establishment and occupation of the settlement.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Source: Historic Environment Scotland