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 includes the remains of at least four roundhouses and other features. The monument lies at about 30m above OD on relatively level ground 2km S of the Lunan Water.

The aerial photographs indicate two roundhouses marked by ring grooves, measuring around 10m and 18m in diameter. Dark disc-shaped cropmarks indicate the presence of at least two other roundhouses with sunken floors, each measuring at least 12m in diameter. Several other less distinct disc-shaped cropmarks are expected to represent the remains of further roundhouses and smaller cropmarks suggest the presence of pits.

The scheduled area comprises two parts: an area to the S that is irregular on plan, and a circular area to the N measuring 40m in diameter. The scheduled area includes 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 our knowledge and understanding of later prehistoric rural settlement in Scotland. The survival together of several roundhouses of varied form and size is relatively rare and there are indications that evidence for structural detail survives. The monument offers high potential to compare changing building forms 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 settlement and ritual and funerary remains in the Lunan Valley. This landscape forms an important concentration of evidence for social and economic change in later prehistoric and medieval Scotland. 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

RCAHMS records the monument as NO64NW 68. The Angus Sites and Monuments Record reference is NO64NW0068.

ReferencesAerial Photographs AN3936, AN7040

Kendrick, J 1995, 'Excavation of a Neolithic enclosure and an Iron Age settlement at Douglasmuir, Angus', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 125, 29-67.

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.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/35505/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland