Description

The monument comprises a burnt mound, a prehistoric cooking place of probable Bronze Age date, which may conceal remains of contemporary settlement.

The mound is situated beside a stream which flows from Loch of Asta to the sea. It is a relatively large example, measuring approximately 17m across at the widest, and has an irregular oval plan. It rises to 2m high. Although the mound has clearly been dug into, perhaps for road metalling, its basal levels appear never to have been distrubed, and may contain evidence of structures associated with contemporary settlement.

Burnt mounds are the by-product of boiling by the immersion of heated stones in a trough of water, and are usually interpreted as cooking places. The area to be scheduled is circular, 30m in diameter, centred on the mound, and includes the mound itself and an area around it in which traces of structures associated with its use and accumulation may survive, as marked in red on the accompanying plan.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a fine example of a burnt mound at the larger end of the size range for such monuments, and because it has the potential, through excavation and analysis, to provide important information about prehistoric domestic economy and diet. It may also conceal evidence relating to contemporary domestic architecture.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as HU 44 SW 9.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland