Description

The monument comprises the remains of an unenclosed prehistoric settlement, visible as cropmarks captured on oblique aerial photographs. The cropmarks indicate the positions of two roundhouses and a probable souterrain. Two other large features indicate additional souterrains or roundhouses and there is also a scatter of pits in the vicinity. The probable souterrain indicates that the settlement was occupied in the late Iron Age, between 250 BC and AD 400, but occupation may have begun significantly before this and may also have continued into the early historic period (between AD 400 and AD 850). The settlement lies at about 35m OD, on relatively level ground above the Motray Water to the N. The monument was first scheduled in 1997, but the documentation did not meet modern standards: the present rescheduling rectifies this.

Two disc-shaped cropmarks about 7m in diameter towards the N boundary of the scheduled area indicate the two roundhouses. A curved linear feature 15m long and 3m wide towards the S of the scheduled area indicates the probable souterrain. The other large features are more amorphous marks measuring about 10m by 4m and 14m by 9m. Smaller cropmarks indicate the positions of about 20 pits.

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 may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The scheduled area specifically excludes the above-ground elements of a stone field wall. On the E side of the S field the scheduled area extends up to, but excludes, a post-and-wire fence. The scheduling also excludes the above-ground elements of electricity poles.

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 later prehistoric period. The survival of structures, including scooped houses with sunken floors and potential souterrains, means that the monument is expected to preserve important occupation evidence. These structures should be robust and may comprise relatively deep features that retain their structural characteristics. The monument is particularly important because it forms part of a dense cluster of prehistoric and early historic settlement and funerary sites, which form a multi-period archaeological landscape of great significance, providing 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 and, potentially, early historic settlement would be diminished if this monument were lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NO 42 SW 35.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland