Description

The monument comprises the remains of a settlement of later Iron Age date. This was scheduled only recently, but changes to the shoreline and the need to create an access to the shore necessitate an adjustment to the protected area.

The settlement at Bosta has been partly excavated and is now protected behind a coastal defence system. Its surface is also protected, and has the upper levels of two houses visible, together with the plan layout of a third. Long known from surface and coast-edge finds and observations of masonry structures, Bosta was partly excavated in 1995.

The sequence proved to be a thin residual series of Norse-medieval deposits overlying a much deeper series of later Iron Age deposits, with good structural preservation of a series of oval houses which appear to have developed into multi-cellular forms late in their history. Provisional dates based on pottery would appear to place the Iron Age settlement in the period AD 300-500.

Three houses were excavated and at least one more identified but not excavated. Of the three houses excavated, two were dug to floor level and one was dug to destruction. Extensive deposits still survive in situ.

The revised area now to be scheduled consists of the known and suspected extent of archaeological deposits plus the new retaining structure to seaward. It consists of an irregular strip bounded to the seaward by the back of the flat beach (to include the recently-constructed coast defences) and to the landward partly by the recent cemetery wall (which is itself excluded from scheduling).

It excludes an area of land on the north and east, formerly scheduled, and includes an area on the south, formerly omitted. The area to be scheduled measures a maximum of 80m WSW-ENE by 135m NNW-SSE, and is shown in red on the accompanying map extract.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a fine example of a later Iron Age settlement with proven structural remains of high quality and with deposits capable of providing much information about later prehistoric domestic economy, settlement organisation and architecture.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Source: Historic Environment Scotland