Description

The monument is a setting of pits, which probably represent the holes in which timber posts were set, appearing as a cropmark in an arable field.

The monument consists of two parallel lines of at least 5 pits, about 8m apart, aligned NW-SE. The NW end appears to be closed by at least one, and possibly two pits, and a further pit appears to lie on the axis of the monument near the NW end.

The setting is about 20m long, although its SE end is slightly obscured by a modern field boundary. The features are strikingly similar to settings excavated elsewhere in Perthshire and Fife, which excavation has shown to be Neolithic ceremonial enclosures, around 5000 to 4500 years old.

The area to be scheduled is circular and measures 50m in diameter, to include the monument visible on the aerial photographs and an area around it in which features associated with its construction and use are likely to survive, as marked in red on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a probably member of a very small group of Neolithic ceremonial enclosures, which seem to be found only in Perthshire and Fife. The monument has the potential to enhance considerably our understanding of ritual and burial activity in the Neolithic of eastern Scotland. The monument is of particular importance because of the presence near Fortingall of ceremonial and burial monuments of the Neolithic and Bronze Age.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NN 74 NW 40.

Reference:

Barclay & Maxwell (1998) The Cleaven Dyke and Littleour: monuments in the Neolithic of Tayside.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland