Description

The monument is the remains of a prehistoric palisaded settlement dating probably from the Late Bronze Age or Iron Age (between about 1200 BC and AD 400). The settlement lies buried beneath the plough soil and is visible as cropmarks captured on oblique aerial photographs. The cropmarks show the eastern half of an enclosure that was probably oval or sub-rectangular on plan and measures 60m N-S. The enclosure is marked by two narrow ditches, each around 1m wide and lying between 3m and 4.5m apart. Investigation by geophysical survey reveals that these palisade trenches run parallel to each other on the S, but diverge slightly on the W where a staggered gap in the ditches may represent an entrance. A closely spaced line of posts would have been placed within the palisade trenches. The monument occupies a NE -facing slope on arable farming land, 5km NE of Gifford at around 185m above OD. The monument was first scheduled in 2000, but the scheduling did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

The scheduled area is circular on plan. It measures 90m in diameter, and is centred on the middle of the enclosure, to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to make a significant addition to our knowledge and understanding of rural settlement in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. Nunraw Barns, with its evidence of twin palisade trenches, is a particularly good example of the curvilinear prehistoric enclosures situated in E Lothian, which researchers have suggested may have originated in the Late Bronze Age and might have remained in use or been re-used until the later Iron Age. The concentration of such monuments in E Lothian forms one of the most important sources of evidence for social and economic change in southern Scotland in the 1st millennia BC and AD. Our understanding of the distribution and character of later prehistoric settlements in SE Scotland would be significantly diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NT57SE 104.

References

Haselgrove, C 2009 Traprain Law Environs Project, Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, p. 248-9

Source: Historic Environment Scotland