Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016968
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016968
This is one of the best preserved souterrains in Angus, for the roof remains intact except where a lintel has been removed to make access possible today. The gallery is some 19 m long and 2 m broad and is lintelled at a height of 1.8 m; the entrance passage, as yet unexcavated, is at the east end of the gallery. At Barns of Airlie several features of the construction of the souterrain may be appreciated in their relationship to one another: the massive basal course of boulders, with the upper corbelled courses of smaller slabs and boulders with the roof slabs above. The excavated finds were largely unremarkable, including quernstones as well as animal bones; one of the roof lintels bears eight cup-markings as well as serpent like grooves, but whether the latter are of prehistoric or natural origin remains a matter for discussion.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).