Description

The monument comprises two adjacent, enclosed settlements with further settlement and related evidence in the vicinity, all visible as buried archaeological features seen in oblique aerial imagery. These features date to the Iron Age (800 BC - AD 400) and later. The monument survives in low lying improved pasture, to the northeast of Cairn Connell Hill, overlooking Loch Ryan to the east, at approximately 85m above sea level. 

The two enclosures are square and trapezoidal on plan, measuring 43m by 43m and 58m by 65m respectively. The each have entrance features and the northern example contains one visible roundhouse while the southern example contains six such roundhouses. Between these settlements there are the remains of two further roundhouses measuring 13m and 7m in diameter respectively with an associated underground store or souterrain, and a small rectangular feature measuring approximately 6m by 3m and thought to be a later, sunken-floor domestic building. In the wider area of these enclosures there are further buried features – a single round house 100m to the east and approximately 35 isolated features likely to be pits, to the north and to the east.   

The scheduled area is a rectangle measuring 200m by 170m. 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. Specifically excluded from the monument are the above-ground remains of all modern boundary features. 

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. The monument is an important indicator of later prehistoric and early historic settlement and associated activity in southwest Scotland.  

b.  The monument retains structural field characteristics in buried stratigraphic layers. Oblique aerial imagery indicates the presence of two enclosures, ten round houses, a souterrain, a later sunken-floor building and approximately 35 pits. There is likely to be additional surviving buried features, components, artefacts and environmental evidence which is not captured in the available remote imagery.   

c.   The monument is a rare example of unenclosed and enclosed settlement thought to date to the Iron Age surviving in close proximity. It is complimented by a large group of pits and a further, later phase of reuse.  

 d.   The monument is a particularly good example of Iron Age enclosed settlements, with rectangular enclosures with multiple roundhouses, 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 and specifically, information about the changing nature of settlement, agriculture, economy and population during later prehistoric and early historic periods. 

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 aerial photographs and survives as buried deposits below the ploughsoil. The two enclosures and roundhouses within them, represent the remains of later prehistoric and early historic enclosed settlement.  Adjacent to these enclosures, to their north and east, there is evidence of further, unenclosed dwellings, an underground store, a dispersed groups of pits and a later, single building. To the west of the settlement is a long linear feature, thought to be the remains of an undated trackway. The various elements are visible as dark patches on the aerial photography and the separate features are clearly definable.

Cropmarked archaeological monuments often contain features that are not visible in aerial photographs and can have well preserved stratified layers of archaeological deposits. There is therefore potential for the survival of archaeological features and deposits, including occupation and abandonment debris, artefacts and environmental remains such as charcoal or pollen within the souterrain, roundhouses, within the ditches of the enclosures and as fills in the various pits close by.

Roundhouses are a common monument type that originated in the Bronze Age (c.2400 BC – 700 BC) and continued to be used into the Iron Age (c.700 BC -AD 400). Over 500 recorded examples of individual roundhouses are known of in Scotland. The group of ten examples here are significant not only because of the surviving deposits indicated by the cropmarked evidence and the potential for the survival of additional buried features, but because they form part of both enclosed and unenclosed types of settlement, the former characterised by square and trapezoidal ditches, each with an entranceway. The souterrain or low roofed underground passage was likely used for storage of foodstuffs such as grains. It is a useful, broad dating indicator for the site and has good potential (as seen in excavated examples) for the survival of a rich assemblage of artefacts such as cattle and sheep bones, plant material such as the grains from oats and barley and pollens associated with an agricultural landscape as well as pottery fragments and tools. Finally, the presence of a small sunken floor building likely to date to a later century and reuse of the site, is significant for the structure, materials and artefacts surviving in the ground. It indicates occupation of the site over a longer time period. Taken together these remains can help us understand much more about population, settlement, agriculture and economy in the area during later prehistoric and early historic periods.

The presence of unenclosed and enclosed roundhouses highlights a time depth to the monument, suggesting more than one phase of activity.

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

The monument represents the types of unenclosed and enclosed settlement and related activity found in southwest Scotland during the Iron Age and in later periods. The enclosures belong to a larger category of similar monuments, enclosed settlement, of which there are only 120 recorded in Scotland – dispersed across the country from the Northern Isles to the Solway Firth and with notable clusters in the Lothians, Angus and more locally in Western Dumfries and Galloway. This example belongs to a regional group of six examples in the area – at Pulnasky Burn (Canmore ID 312983 and 312985), where the low standing remains of enclosure walls and hut circles on the east side of Luce Bay are visible. At Mains of Caldon on the northwest side of Luce Bay (Canmore ID 60602) there is an example of a similar, single enclosed settlement. At Barsolus halfway between Luce Bay and Loch Ryan there is a further, single enclosed settlement (Canmore ID 79043) and closer to this monument, at Ochtrelure to the southwest of Stranraer (Canmore ID79393) there is a further, single enclosed settlement. There are greater numbers of related unenclosed settlement in Scotland with approximately 560 such examples, mostly located in the eastern side of the country.

This is a particularly interesting complex of monuments which demonstrates a sequence of use involving enclosed and unenclosed forms of settlement, the remains of contemporary activity seen in the surviving souterrain and groups of dispersed pits and a later reuse, seen in the surviving early medieval sunken-floor building.

The monument is located on east facing, gently sloping ground and is likely positioned to take advantage of relatively fertile soils. It is a good representative example of its class and a component of the wider contemporary settlement and agricultural landscapes, occupying low lying ground around Loch Ryan and Luce Bay. It therefore has the potential to help us understand more of the nature, development and the spatial relationships of prehistoric settlement and activity in southwest Scotland. 

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 site's national importance.

 

 

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Historic Environment Scotland http://www.canmore.org.uk reference numbers CANMORE IDs 81597, 81598 and 81599 (accessed on 15/05/2023).

Local Authority HER/SMR References MDG5987, 5988 and 5989 (accessed on 15/05/2023).

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments, 1997, Eastern Dumfriesshire: an archaeological landscape. Edinburgh. RCAHMS.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/81597/
https://canmore.org.uk/site/81599/
https://canmore.org.uk/site/81598/

HER/SMR Reference

MDG5987
MDG5988
MDG5989

Source: Historic Environment Scotland