Archaeology Notes
Event ID 697192
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/697192
NJ41NE 1.01 4609 1960
This souterrain is situated under a small stand of trees 240m W of Muirs of Kildrummy steading (NJ41NE 74). The main part of the passage is orientated E and W, but at the W end it turns at right-angles onto the narrow entrance. The passage measures about 16m in length and ranges in width from 1.3m at the W end to 1.9m at the E end. Most of the passage retains its original roofing of large slabs, but this has been removed over a distance of 2.4m from the E end and 1.5m at the W end. The walls of the souterrain are up to 1.7m high and have been constructed primarily of angular random masonry on a basal course of large irregular boulders. The upper courses of the masonry are corbelled and the narrowing in the breadth towards the roof is most obvious at the E end, where it reduces from 1.9m to 1.5m.
At the entrance a set of five steps, which may be a comparatively modern insertion, descends through a narrow passage, which measures between 0.5m and 0.7m in breadth and is no more than 0.9m in height where it joins the end of the main chamber. At least two further steps are probably buried beneath soil that has washed or fallen into the end of the passage.
At the opposite end of the main passage, in the S wall 1m from the E end, and 0.7m from the floor, there is an entrance to a secondary chamber, which is similar in terms of its location and construction to that recorded at Glenkindie (NJ41SW 2). The entrance measures 0.65m in width and 0.6m in height. The secondary chamber has largely been in-filled, but at least three roofing slabs can be seen over a distance of 1m.
The roof of the souterrain incorporates at least two cupmarked slabs. One is situated on the S side 4.6m from the E end, above and between the fourth and fifth surviving roofing-slabs. Very little of the stone is visible, but the underside is decorated with cupmarks measuring up to 75mm in diameter; two of the cups are linked by a short length of channel and there are other lengths of channel present. On the N side, in a similar location, the second stone bears cup-and-ringmarkings, but the stone is too inaccessible for any details of the decoration to be noted.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), 15 October 1997.
Scheduled [with NJ41NE 1.02] as Muirs of Kildrummy, souterrains 230m W of and 350m SSW of...
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 2 December 2003.
