Description

Cultural Significance

The monument's cultural significance can be expressed as follows:

Intrinsic characteristics

The monument is in reasonably good condition overall. The house is oval in shape, defined by a single kerb of substantial stones, and the interior is slightly hollowed. The house wall is best preserved on the north and east sides, and is almost 2m wide in places. An entrance is visible on the SSW side. The house is surrounded by an incomplete, low, stony and mostly turf-covered enclosure wall. There is some evidence of shallow peat cutting having taken place within the enclosure more recently, but these are now inactive and turfed over. The monument is situated on the top of a slope between two scarps of rocky outcrop, overlooking Vassa Voe to the west. The site is likely to contain important buried deposits, including artefacts, ecofacts and other environmental evidence, which could help to further our understanding prehistoric domestic life and agricultural activity.

Examination of the building foundations can provide detailed information about the form and construction of prehistoric houses in Shetland, and buried features in the interior can contribute to our understanding of how houses were used and organised, and how this might change over time. Buried artefacts, ecofacts and soils can contribute to our understanding of how people lived and worked, and provide insights into trade and exchange and the nature of the agricultural economy. Archaeological investigation at similar sites has yielded high quality artefactual and ecofactual material, which can help us to build up a much fuller picture of prehistoric domestic life. There is also the potential to compare the date and structure of the building with the enclosing bank to determine the relationship between these features, and to ascertain how the inhabitants managed the landscape in the immediate vicinity. There is particular potential to determine how the field system developed and whether the soils were improved.

Contextual characteristics

This is a relatively well-preserved example of a number of broadly similar prehistoric houses with enclosures in Nesting and east Shetland that characterise early settlement and the development of agriculture in the third to second millennium BC in Shetland. It is part of a relatively rare and geographically restricted group, which gives us a more balanced view of prehistoric life, when compared with the more common and widespread burial and ceremonial monuments of the later Neolithic elsewhere in Scotland.

The monument's situation within the landscape further enhances its importance. It is in an exposed location close to the seashore but with good views across Vassa Voe and Catfirth. There are a number of other prehistoric monuments in the surrounding area overlooking Catfirth. Features of broadly contemporary date include another oval-shaped prehistoric house, 1km to the south, and a cairn at Hard Knowe. Later brochs, 750m to the southwest and 1km to the NNE at Loch of Benston, occupy strategically important locations overlooking the main water systems. This monument is clearly an important element of a much wider relict landscape and it testifies to early human efforts to exploit land and natural resources, in particular for agricultural production, over millennia. Comparison of this site with the other prehistoric domestic remains in the area would help us to develop a much better understanding of prehistoric domestic life and landuse.

National Importance

The monument comprises the remains of a prehistoric house and associated field enclosure. The prehistoric house is oval in shape and measures approximately 11m by 8m. The low intermittently visible remains of a wall run around the house, forming a large, approximately oval enclosure, measuring a maximum of 65m SW-NE by 60m transversely. The monument is believed to be late Neolithic or Bronze Age in date, probably from around 3000 to 1000 BC. It is located on sloping ground around 15m above sea level on the west shore of Vassa Voe, an arm of Catfirth. The monument was originally scheduled in 1975 but the scheduling documentation does not meet modern standards: the present rescheduling rectifies this.

The area to be scheduled is irregular on plan to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

This monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to make a significant addition to the understanding of the past, in particular, the nature of prehistoric settlement, agriculture and landuse in Shetland. It has the potential to improve our understanding of the distribution of settlement, the structural techniques used to build houses and changes in settlement over time. There is also excellent potential to study how the site fitted into a landscape that is rich in prehistoric remains. The loss of this monument would impede our ability to understand the nature of prehistoric domestic architecture and settlement both in Shetland and Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

References

Calder, C S T, 1958 'Stone Age house-sites in Shetland', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 89, 369.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland