Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016630
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016630
The remains of this cluster of late bronze-age timber houses are the most interesting of a series of similar groups that are concentrated in the valleys of the Camps Water, Midlock Water and Upper Clyde, most of which are to be found within about 30m of the 300m contour.
This group consists of five well-preserved platforms which would originally have supported circular timber houses; the largest lies just inside the south-east wall of the wood and is flanked by another two immediately to the east, the remaining two lie slightly lower down the hill. The platforms have been partially levelled into the slope to form an 'eyebrow' at the rear, and the excavated material had been pulled forwards in a semicircular 'apron' to form a level terrace on which the house was built The entrances to the houses normally lie at the junction of the eyebrow and apron, and at Normangill they are all situated on the south-east. Although there are many other unenclosed platform settlements in the area this is the only one to be associated with what are probably burial-cairns. These lie on a small shelf immediately to the east-north-east, and comprise about fourteen stony mounds measuring up to 5m in diameter by 0.7m in height.
The next group of unenclosed platforms lies only 250m to the east, just above the public road and by a stone sheep stell. Here, there are at least twelve platforms, and the most interesting feature of this group is the pairing of a large with a much smaller platform; two such pairs form the uppermost four houses of the group. This arrangement of houses suggests some form of functional differentiation, with the larger house possibly serving as a dwelling, while the smaller may have been used as a store.
Before leaving Normangilllook south over the Midlock Water and try and spot the group of unenclosed platforms high up on the slope opposite.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
