Description

The monument is the remains of a prehistoric unenclosed settlement, dating probably to between 1800 BC and AD 400, and an adjacent enclosure. The settlement and enclosure lie buried beneath the ploughsoil and are visible as cropmarks captured on oblique aerial photographs.

The unenclosed settlement is represented by the remains of at least five roundhouses, ranging in diameter from at least 6m to at least 10m. The enclosure lies to the S and is defined by a ditch about 1m wide that surrounds an area measuring at least 45m NNW-SSE by 45m transversely. The monument lies towards the bottom of a gentle S-facing slope 1.5km WNW of Carnoustie Bay, at around 22m OD.

The scheduled area 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 is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The monument was first scheduled in 1997, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to make a significant addition to knowledge and understanding of prehistoric rural settlement in lowland Scotland. It is a rare example of several unenclosed roundhouses, some scooped into the ground, surviving in close proximity to a ditched rectilinear enclosure. It offers high potential to compare settlement form and character over a long time period. The monument's importance is enhanced by its association with the wider archaeological landscape of unenclosed settlements and enclosures inland from Carnoustie Bay. This landscape forms an important concentration of evidence for social and economic change in later prehistoric Scotland. Our understanding of the distribution and character of later prehistoric settlements would be diminished if this monument was lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NO53NW 29. The Angus Sites and Monuments Record reference is NO53NW0029.

RCAHMS Aerial Photographs AN 3268, AN 3269, C 72533

References

McGill, C 2003, 'The excavation of a palisaded enclosure and associated structures at Ironshill East, near Inverkeilor, Angus', Tayside and Fife Arch Jour 9, 14-33.

Haselgrove, C 2009 Traprain Law Environs Project, Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland