Description

The monument is the remains of two unenclosed settlements. The remains lie buried beneath the ploughsoil and are visible as cropmarks captured on oblique aerial photographs. The remains comprise roundhouses and associated features dating to between 1800 BC and AD 400, but there is also evidence for sub-rectangular structures that are probably of early historic or medieval date. The monument lies between 20m and 25m OD, on a broad ridge of higher ground that rises above the Keilor Burn to the S. The site overlooks the coast about 600m to the E.

A well-defined disc-shaped cropmark towards the NW end of the E settlement area indicates a roundhouse with sunken floor. Crescent-shaped cropmarks in the W settlement area indicate two ring ditch roundhouses with partially sunken floors or erosional hollows. These features measure between 10m and 12m in diameter. There are also at least three potential roundhouses in the E area and two potential roundhouses in the W area, represented by disc- or crescent-shaped marks. Three probable sub-rectangular buildings lie in the E area. One measures about 14m by 5m within a wall trench about 1m wide. A dark internal mark about 7m long and 2m wide represents a drain or scooped floor. The other two structures are of similar width but one, to the SE, appears to measure at least 26m in length. The E area also contains a sub-rectangular enclosure or structure measuring about 13m N-S by 13m transversely, with an internal subdivision. A small ring ditch about 6m in diameter lies towards the E end of the E area and may represent the remains of a round barrow as there is no break in the ditch. Another ring ditch representing either a barrow or another small roundhouse lies towards the S of the W area.

Two areas are scheduled, both irregular on plan, to include the remains described above and areas 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 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 prehistoric roundhouses and early historic or medieval sub-rectangular structures and it therefore offers high potential to compare settlement form and character over a long time period. The potential presence of round barrows among this complex of features adds to the complexity of the site. 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 prehistoric and later settlements would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

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

References

RCAHMS Aerial Photographs AN3520, AN3612, AN3614, AN3615, AN3618, B5367, B05371, B05391,

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