Description

The monument is the remains of an unenclosed settlement dating probably to between 1800 BC and AD 1000. The building remains lie buried beneath the ploughsoil and are visible as cropmarks captured on oblique aerial photographs. They comprise a variety of features, including circular houses, sub-rectangular buildings and possible souterrains. The monument lies between 15m and 25m OD, occupying the top and the S flank of a broad ridge of higher ground approximately 1km from the coast.

The settlement is visible as a series of cropmarks running E-W along a relatively level area, augmented by other cropmarks lying to the S and SW on a gentle S-facing slope. Three well-defined ring-groove roundhouses are clearly visible, two towards the E and one towards the S of the monument. They range from 10m to 16m in diameter, are each defined by a ring groove about 1m wide, and have entrances to the E or SE. Towards the centre of the site, a curved cropmark measuring up to 2m wide represents either a souterrain or a ring-ditch roundhouse about 14m in diameter. Other curvilinear cropmarks are likely to represent smaller souterrains or roundhouses. A sub-rectangular structure towards the SW of the area measures about 9m long by 3.5 m wide and resembles an early historic building excavated by archaeologists some 200m to the N of this complex of features. Sub-rectangular features up to 10m long and 2m wide may represent the sunken floors of other rectangular buildings. A curving ditch 24m long and 1m wide lies towards the NW of the site and numerous pits are scattered across the area, including a probable alignment of eight pits extending for 28m across the NE part of the area, aligned WNW-ESE. A small ring ditch in the NE corner of the monument represents either a barrow or another small building.

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 scheduled area is divided into two parts by a modern road which is excluded from the scheduling. The scheduling specifically excludes the post-and-wire fences bounding the road, the above-ground elements of all other post-and-wire fences, and the above-ground elements of all electricity poles. The monument was first scheduled in 1996, 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 prehistoric settlement in Scotland. It is a rare example of a site that preserves evidence for both roundhouses and at least one rectangular structure and it offers high potential to compare changes in 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 NO64NE 46. The Angus Sites and Monuments Record reference is NO64NE0046.

ReferencesRCAHMS Aerial Photographs AN3689, AN3690, AN5504, AN5508, C27696

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

McGill, C 2004, 'Excavations of cropmarks at Newbarns, near Inverkeilor, Angus', Tayside and Fife Archaeol J 10, 95-118.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/35426/
https://canmore.org.uk/site/127288/

HER/SMR Reference

Angus SMR NO64NE0046

Source: Historic Environment Scotland