Description

The monument is the remains of an unenclosed settlement dating to between 1800 BC and AD 400. The settlement lies buried beneath the ploughsoil and is visible as cropmarks captured on oblique aerial photographs. It is represented by the remains of at least four roundhouses, ranging in diameter from at least 9m to 15m. There is also a circle of pits that potentially represents another house, and at least one souterrain (a buried structure normally used for storage) that lies about 20m W of the main group of roundhouses. The monument lies at about 40m OD on undulating ground that stands immediately above the Colliston Burn.

The scheduled area comprises two distinct areas, one an irregular quadrilateral on plan and the other circular, 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 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 later prehistoric rural settlement in Scotland. It includes roundhouses that vary in size and form and at least one souterrain. It offers high potential to compare changing settlement form and character over time and to examine the functions of different building types. The monument's importance is enhanced by its association with the wider archaeological landscape of unenclosed settlements and ritual and funerary remains near the Colliston Burn and around Templeton and Boysack Mills. If this monument was to be lost or damaged, our understanding of the distribution and character of later prehistoric settlements would be diminished.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Other Information

RCAHMS records the monument as NO64NW 30. The Angus Sites and Monuments Record reference is NO64NW0030.

Aerial Photographs AN3472, SC1014641

References

Anderson, S and Rees, RR, 2006 'The excavations of a large double-chambered souterrain at Ardownie Farm Cottages, Monifieth, Angus', Tayside Fife Archaeol Jour 12, 14-60.

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

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/35464/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland