Description

The monument is a prehistoric or early historic barrow dating probably to between 2500 BC and AD 800. The remains lie buried beneath the ploughsoil and are visible as cropmarks captured on oblique aerial photographs. The ditch that defines the barrow is about 2m wide, encircling an area with an internal diameter of about 14m. Close to the centre of the barrow a cropmark indicates a sub-circular pit about 1.5m in diameter. The monument lies on relatively level ground 2.4km S of the Lunan Water at around 25m OD.

The scheduled area is a circle 50m in diameter, centred on the centre of the barrow, as shown in red on the accompanying map. It includes 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. The monument was first scheduled in 1994, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present amendment rectifies this.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is important because of its potential to enhance our understanding of funerary and burial activity in eastern Scotland during the prehistoric and early historic periods. The barrow appears to be a good example of its type and undisturbed, with evidence for a central grave-pit. There is good potential for the survival of one or more burials within and around the barrow. The importance of this apparently isolated barrow is enhanced by its proximity to the cluster of round and square barrows known around Boysack, around 3km to the N, and the wider landscape of prehistoric settlement and funerary sites in this part of the Lunan Valley. The archaeological landscape here forms an important concentration of evidence for social and economic change in eastern Scotland in the 1st millennia BC and AD. Our understanding of the distribution and character of funerary sites and their relationship with the wider landscape would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NO64NW 43. The Angus Sites and Monuments Record reference is NO64NW0043.

References

RCAHMS Aerial Photographs AN2806, AN2807

Alexander, D 2005, 'Redcastle, Lunan Bay, Angus: the excavation of an Iron Age timber-lined souterrain and a Pictish barrow cemetery', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 135, 41-118.

Murray, D and Ralston, I 1997, 'The excavation of a square-ditched barrow and other cropmarks at Boysack Mills, Inverkeilor, Angus', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 127, 359-386.

RCAHMS 1978, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The archaeological sites and monuments of Lunan Valley, Montrose Basin, Angus District, Tayside Region, the archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland series no 4, Edinburgh, 18, no 113.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland