Description

The monument comprises a ditched enclosure of prehistoric date, visible as a cropmark on oblique aerial photographs. The monument lies about 200m SE of South Lodge, in an arable field at around 25m OD.

The enclosure is roughly circular in shape, with a maximum diameter of about 65m. A gap in the circuit on the W side probably signifies the location of the entrance.

A series of trial trenches, excavated across the enclosure in 2001 as part of an archaeological evaluation of a larger area, has demonstrated that the site is an enclosed settlement. The main enclosing ditch was found to be c.4m wide and up to 1.5m deep. In places it was waterlogged at its base. Traces of a possible inner ditch (identified in the cropmark) were also observed, although obscured by later features.

Within the enclosure, extensive areas of stone paving were encountered in the trial trenches. In at least one case, the paving was bounded by a linear arrangement of edge-set stones, possibly the footing for a wall. By analogy with comparable sites, these areas of paving are interpreted as the floors of roundhouses.

At least some of the paving overlay part of the putative inner ditch, suggesting that the enclosure witnessed at least two phases of activity. The enclosure interior appeared to undulate, with areas of paving surviving at different heights. This has contributed to the unusually good preservation of archaeological remains within the interior, since at least some of the house floors have escaped the plough.

The trial excavations produced a limited assemblage of artefacts, including a rotary quern, coarse pottery and a fragment of a possible Roman amphora handle. These indicate that the enclosed settlement was in use in the later Iron Age, from the early to mid first millennium AD.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to survive. It is sub-circular in shape, truncated on its NE side. It has maximum dimensions of c.89m E-W by c.83m N-S, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as an unusually well-preserved, late prehistoric settlement, which has the potential to enhance our understanding of prehistoric settlement types, domestic architecture, social organisation and economy in lowland Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NT 37 SE 115.

Aerial photographs used:

C52460 and C46400-46402 (1995).

Source: Historic Environment Scotland