Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016496

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016496

This is an enclosed settlement surrounded by a system of large fields represented by stone banks and clearance heaps. The most substantial features are A and B on Ogston's plan which have stone walls, 2.5m thick, sunken floors and dia meters of 16.5m and 17.5m. Their entrances face east and north respectively. A small souterrain, C, can be seen clearly, opening off feature D which may be a house site similar to feature E at New Kinord (no. 70). In 1904, the Hon J Abercromby excavated huts H, B, A, and D and found a stone disc, flints, charcoal, pottery and a quern fragment. His conclusion that the structures were late cattle kraals was dismissed trenchantly, but probably rashly, by Ogston as 'untenable'.

Features Land K are enclosures, less substantial than D and R at New Kinord. Although structure H was interpreted as a hut it lies outside the main enclosure wall and is irregular in plan. A reexcavation of structure D produced no datable finds. However, a burnt hazelnut shell indicated woodland foraging, while soil pollen analysis suggested the existence of extensive pasture and some cereals.

Loch Kinord, over the ridge to the south, contains one of the few crannogs or lake dwellings in Grampian. It is the smallest islet in the loch, an oval, pile- and stone-built feature, 22m by 19m.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).