Description

The monument is the remains of an unenclosed settlement and related features. The remains lie buried beneath the ploughsoil and are visible as cropmarks captured on oblique aerial photographs. Most of the remains are roundhouses of different types dating to between 1800 BC and AD 400, but there is also evidence for rectangular structures which are probably later in date (early historic or medieval), a possible square barrow which is probably an early historic funerary monument; and parts of several other possible enclosures of unknown date.

Two well-defined disc-shaped cropmarks, one to the SE of the site, the other to the NW, indicate roundhouses with sunken floors. There is also a crescent-shaped cropmark between the two indicating a ring-ditch roundhouse with a partially sunken floor or erosional hollow on the E side of the footprint. These features measure 9m-10m in diameter. Some 12m W of the SE roundhouse is a sub-circular ring-groove measuring about 17m by 14m, indicating another roundhouse of different type. Immediately E of the ring-groove is a rectilinear enclosure defined by a ditch about 1m wide enclosing an area measuring some 19m N-S by 17m E-W; this feature probably represents a square barrow. Less well-defined disc-shaped marks suggest the positions of a further three roundhouses with sunken floors, each measuring up to 15m in diameter. Linear cropmarks suggest the position of a rectangular structure at least 15m long and 4m wide towards the S of the site, and a second such feature at least 18m long and 8m wide towards the N of the site. Other linear cropmarks may represent parts of enclosures. The monument lies between 20m and 25m OD, at the E end of a ridge of higher ground that rises above the Keilor Burn to the S. The site overlooks the coast, about 500m to the E.

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. On the SW side the scheduled area extends up to but excludes a post-and-wire fence. 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 of national importance because of its potential to make a significant addition to knowledge and understanding of rural settlement in Scotland. It is a rare example of a site that preserves evidence for both roundhouses and rectangular structures and 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 in the lower Lunan Valley. This landscape forms an important concentration of evidence for social and economic change in later prehistoric and medieval Scotland. Our understanding of the distribution and character of later prehistoric settlements would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as part of NO64NE 19. The Angus Sites and Monuments Record reference is NO64NE0019.

References

RCAHMS Aerial Photographs AN3612, AN3613, AN3614, AN3692

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

Pollock, D 1997, 'The excavation of Iron Age buildings at Ironshill, Inverkeilor, Angus', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 127, 339-358.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland