Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017311
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017311
A settlement of stone-walled houses, stock enclosures and droveways, this site was systematically recorded by Sir Alexander Ogston, sometime physician to Queen Victoria. The contiguous structures, A, Band E on Ogston's plan have been interpreted as houses. A is massively walled and sunken-floored, a sizeable 19m in diameter. B appears to consist of a hut circle enclosed by a stone wall 18m in diameter. E is 17m in diameter and similar to B in plan, but is slighter in construction (and may represent the remains of a timber house). The souterrain, C, appears to open off E (?with a connection to B as well).
The enclosures, Rand D, lie to the Nand S of the three huts. D is contiguous with A and 19.5m in diameter; it has a clearly defmed entrance to the E. R is not attached to any house but one massive main wall of the surrounding field system runs north from its north-western corner. R is more irregular in plan, being 26m E-W by 24m N-S; its entrance faces southwest. The double walls, M, have been interpreted as a droveway. The other features, X, Y, etc are more vestigial.
The birch woods around contain many stone banks and walls of a sizeable system of large enclosures, related to this well organised, prestigious farmstead.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Grampian’, (1986).
