Description

The monument comprises the remains of an unenclosed settlement of prehistoric date that has been recorded as cropmarks on oblique aerial photographs. On aerial photographs four roundhouses are visible as darker circular features with associated sub circular features that may be further roundhouses. The monument lies in arable farmland, at a height of around 10m above sea level.

The scheduled area contains cropmarks of a settlement that probably dates to the end of the Bronze Age (2500BC-800BC) or Iron Age (800BC-500AD). The settlement has a number of features indicating the remains of former timber roundhouses of the later prehistoric period. There is a group of at least four, roundhouses with narrow circular ditches, and at least two sub-circular cropmarks. The largest roundhouse, to the southwest, measures about 16m in diameter, while the others measure about 10m in diameter. They each have breaks in the perimeter ditch on the east and west. The sub-circular cropmarks, one of which is near disc-shaped, are located in the centre and the southeast of the settlement, measure about 9m and 13m in diameter. These features are likely to be further roundhouses but of a different construction type. 

The scheduled area is square, measuring 70m by 70m. 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. 

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because it makes a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past or has the potential to do so as a prehistoric unenclosed settlement. The monument is an important indicator of later prehistoric settlement and associated activity in southwest Scotland and is a rare survival of an unenclosed settlement in an area where enclosed or defended settlements are more common. It retains structural field characteristics in buried stratigraphic layers demonstrated by cropmarks and 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 period.  

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/61222/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland