Description

The monument comprises a henge and palisaded enclosure dating from the Neolithic (4100-2200BC) to Bronze Age (2200-800BC). They have been recorded as cropmarks on oblique aerial photography.

The henge ditch is a maximum of 2m wide enclosing an area 4m wide with an entrance 2m wide to the southeast. It appears as a dark curve on aerial photography. The palisaded enclosure is located to the southeast of the henge. It is composed of three lines of palisade. It encloses an area 16.5m wide with an entrance to the east 4.5m wide. It appears as two dark lines converging to the south and a dark 'C' shape on aerial photography.

The scheduled area is in two parts; a circle to the north 38m in diameter and an irregular area to the southeast. It includes the remains described above and an area around within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The above ground elements of all current post and wire fences are excluded.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The national importance of the monument is demonstrated in the following way(s) (see Designations Policy and Selection Guidance, Annex 1, para 17):

a.  The monument is of national importance because it makes a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past, as a henge and palisaded enclosure, identified through oblique aerial photography, and dating from the Neolithic (4100-2200BC) to Bronze Age (2200-800BC).

b.   The monument retains structural and physical attributes which make a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past. Buried features such as ditches and postholes can provide material for radiocarbon dating and environmental analysis as well as artefacts. Detailed study of the henge and palisaded enclosure can tell us about their construction, use, reuse, repair and abandonment.

d.   The monument is a particularly good example of a 'mini' henge and is therefore an important representative of this monument type.  

e.   The monument has research potential which could significantly contribute to our understanding or appreciation of the past. For example, it has the potential to tell us about the nature of religious and ritual practices and beliefs and settlement during the Neolithic (4100-2200BC) and Bronze Age (2200-800BC).

f.   The monument makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the prehistoric landscape in particular the development of ritual or ceremonial sites, settlement patterns and how the two may related to one another in terms location and chronology in the Neolithic (4100-2200BC) and Bronze Age (2200-800BC).

Assessment of Cultural Significance

This statement of national importance has been informed by the following assessment of cultural significance:

Intrinsic characteristics (how the remains of a site or place contribute to our knowledge of the past)

This monument has been recorded as cropmarks on oblique aerial photographs and survives as buried deposits below the ploughsoil. The monument comprises a henge and palisaded enclosure dating from the Neolithic (4100-2200BC) to the Bronze Age (2200-800BC).

Henges are circular earth enclosures with an external bank, an internal ditch and at least one entrance. They can be associated with pits, post holes, standing stones, cremations, burials, mounds, and cairns. Many henges have been shown to have multiple phases of activity and reuse. They date from the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age and are thought to have been used for a broad range of religious, ritual and ceremonial practices. Due to its small size Millhaugh is classed as a 'mini' henge.

Excavations at Millhaugh found the henge ditch survives to 0.55m in depth and to be 1.75m wide. The ditch was found to have been had been deliberately backfilled with the upper fill containing a large amount of charcoal. Two midden pits were found to have been cut into the ditch fill. More charcoal was identified in a large midden pit, which had at some cut into the fill of the ditch (Wright 2017, 5, 16-19, 21).

Palisaded enclosures can date from the Late Neolithic to Medieval period and have been associated with settlements and religious, ritual and ceremonial activity. Palisades are constructed of upright timber posts, stakes or planks and can be used to enclose areas, define boundaries and screen views. In most cases palisades only survive in the archaeological record as narrow trenches with post holes, stake holes or plank slots for the timber uprights. Excavations at Millhaugh identified three lines of likely contemporary palisade, similarly constructed and represented by stake holes. They are interpreted as the remains of fencing. Interior features included an arc of five post holes, which may be the remains of a round house. Finds at the site included a perforated stone weight, charcoal, burnt bone and a quartz flake.  Samples were also taken for paleobotanical analysis. (Wright 2017, 12-14). A similar palisaded site at Gogar Mains (Canmore ID 300203) was radiocarbon dated from the Middle Bronze Age to Late Bronze Age with finds suggesting activity at the site in the Neolithic and Iron Age (Will and James 2017, 13).

Archaeological monuments often contain features that are not visible in aerial photographs and can have well preserved stratified layers of archaeological deposits. As excavations at Millhaugh have shown there is the potential for the survival of archaeological features and deposits, including evidence of use and abandonment, artefacts and environmental remains such as charcoal or pollen. This has the potential to provide information about the function and date of the features and their relationship to each other. Study of the monument's form and construction techniques compared with other henges and palisaded enclosures would also enhance our understanding of the development sequence of this site.

Contextual characteristics (how a site or place relates to its surroundings and/or to our existing knowledge of the past)

The monument is situated in an area of flat ground to the west of Millhaugh Farm. To the east, running south-north from the Ochils, is the Keltie Burn. To the southwest is Keltie loch.

Nearby are two further prehistoric monuments; Millhaugh, burial mound, enclosure and cropmarks 200m SE of (scheduled monument SM5775: 320m eastsoutheast) and Millhaugh, enclosure and pit alignment 300m E of (scheduled monument SM5776: 564m northeast). Excavation at SM5775 identified the burial mound as a kerbed cairn, possibly dating to the Bronze Age (Brophy and Green 2014, 3). Aerial photography has revealed a Neolithic mortuary enclosure or long cairn a short distance to the south of the kerbed cairn.  SM5776 was excavated in 2016. These excavations identified settlement evidence dating to the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age along with a Bronze Age cist burial (Wright 2016, 3, 29). Study of these monuments together, along with other similar sites, has the potential to increase our understanding of local land use, in particular the development of ritual or ceremonial practices and settlement patterns and how the two may related to one another.

Millhaugh is also part of a group of 'mini' henges in the Strathearn area. These are located at Bennybeg (scheduled monument SM7760), Belhie (Canmore ID 25964), Leadketty (Scheduled Monument SM9158), Moncreiffe (Canmore ID 28012); with recent aerial transcriptions identifying several at Forteviot (scheduled monument SM4111; SM4232). Both the Leadketty and the Forteviot henges were found within or near to palisaded enclosures (Brophy and Noble 2020, 153-155). Sites comparable to the palisaded enclosure at Millhaugh include Mains Of Duncrub (Canmore ID 26636) and Baldinnies (Canmore ID 68302). There is the potential to compare this monument with similar sites across Perth and Kinross and eastern Scotland more widely. This has the potential to tell us why particular places were chosen to be sites of ritual, ceremony and settlement in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, if they were ever contemporary, the nature of any relationship and how this may have changed over time.

Associative characteristics (how a site or place relates to people, events, and/or historic and social movements)

There are no known associative characteristics that contribute to the monument's national importance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Historic Environment Scotland http://www.canmore.org.uk reference number CANMORE ID 26708 (accessed on 18/05/2021).

Historic Environment Scotland http://www.canmore.org.uk reference number CANMORE ID 26706 (accessed on 18/05/2021).

Local Authority HER/SMR Reference MPK2022 (accessed on 18/05/2021).

Local Authority HER/SMR Reference MPK2024 (accessed on 18/05/2021).

Brophy, K. and Green, H. 2014. Millhaugh cairn excavations 2014. University of Glasgow, Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) Project [Available at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/research/archaeologyresearch/currentresearch/serf/reportarchive/] (accessed on 18/05/2021).

Brophy, K. and Noble G. 2020 Prehistoric Forteviot – excavations of a ceremonial complex in Eastern Scotland. Council for British Archaeology. York. [Available at: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/Forteviot_vol_1_OA.pdf ] (accessed on 18/05/2021).

Will, B. and James, H. 2017 'Excavations to the West of Gogar Mains, Edinburgh.' In Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports 72 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Archaeology Data Service. Edinburgh. [Available at: http://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/sair/article/view/3190] (accessed on 08/06/2021)

Wright, D. 2016. Millhaugh 2016 Data Structure Report: CB16 18 June – 10 July 2016. University of Glasgow, Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) Project [Available at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/research/archaeologyresearch/currentresearch/serf/reportarchive/ ] (accessed on 18/05/2021).

Wright, D. Data Structure Report: Excavations MH17 27 March – 4 April 2017. University of Glasgow, Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) Project [Available at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/research/archaeologyresearch/currentresearch/serf/reportarchive/] (accessed on 18/05/2021).

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/26708/
https://canmore.org.uk/site/26706/

HER/SMR Reference

MPK2022
http://www.pkht.org.uk/resources/her/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland