Scotsburn House

The remains of what is probably a broch stand 600m WSW of Scotsburn House. It measures 6m in diameter within a wall spread to about 7m in thickness. The broch is surrounded by an outwork, and on the W there are two additional ramparts and ditches.

Visited by RCAHMS October 1978

Sources: ISSFC 1902; DES 1969, 46-7; DES 1970, 45

Scotsburn House NH 714 761 NH77NW 6

The remains of what is probably a broch stand 600m WSW of Scotsburn House. It measures 6m in diameter within a wall spread to about 7m in thickness. The broch is surrounded by an outwork, and on the W there are two additional ramparts and ditches.

RCAHMS 1979, visited October 1978

(Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club, v, 1895-9, 361-2; DES, 1969, 46-7; DES, 1970, 45)

Undoubtedly this defensive work can be considered as a broch based on its size and shape, but the total absence of any exposed facing stones and structural details, and the incorporation of rock outcrop in the wall suggests that it is more likely to be a dun. Only rubble stones are visible, hence the suggestion that the wall may have been timber-laced.

Visited by OS (N K B) 10 March 1981.

NH 71480 76160 (NH77NW 6) As part of the Northern Picts Project surveys and excavations have been undertaken from 2012 to 2014 on six Atlantic roundhouses on the Tarbat Peninsula, to track the nature of settlement in this landscape in the first millennium BC to AD. Work was undertaken at this site from 8–31 July 2014.

The monumental roundhouse at Scotsburn House occupies a spur of land on the southern edge of a natural terrace at c120m OD. The site sits on a steeply sloping summit of a low hill that overlooks the land surrounding Nigg Bay on the N shores of the Cromarty Firth. Immediately to the W is a steep ravine leading to the Balnagown River and to the N are the hills of Strath Rory on which the hillfort of Cnoc An Duin, c2km to the SE, lies. The roundhouse is strategically located at the end of the Strath, a major route westward and at the base of the largest hillfort in Easter Ross. Prior to excavation the upstanding remains of a large thick-walled dry-stone walled

roundhouse could be identified on the summit of the hillock, previously referred to as both a broch and a dun (RCAHMS 1979). Encircling the house is a series of well preserved outworks, which include a stone enclosure wall that surrounds the roundhouse, which in turn is flanked by two earthen

banks and ditches which can each be traced to the edge of the ravine. A break in the outworks at the N indicates the likely position of an entrance through the enclosures. Due to heavy vegetation and extensive piles of rubble, the exact dimensions of the house and its walls or location of its entrance has yet to be identified, but is c15m.

A 20 x 2m long evaluation trench was positioned across the outworks and the wall of the roundhouse. The wall of the roundhouse was not excavated but the upper surface was exposed by de-turfing and removal of loose rubble. The wall was 4.2m wide and consisted of an inner and outer wall with a probable intra-mural void, c1m wide, located between them. Between the wall of the roundhouse and enclosure wall a 7m wide area with well preserved evidence of extra-mural activity surrounding the roundhouse was exposed. The foundations of two thin dry stone walls were partially exposed, a linear wall running almost parallel to the roundhouse wall and a curvilinear structure with a flagstone floor. Cobbled surfaces, thick layers of charcoal-rich occupation deposits and extensive areas of daub and turf suggest that these walls are the stone bases of turf and timber structures. A mortar stone was recovered from the surface of

one of the occupation horizons between the structures, along with extensive deposits of burnt grain. Between the enclosure wall and the inner earthen bank was a 3m wide heavily ironpanned metalled surface. Rutting and repeated repair on its surface suggested it was a well used route into the complex. Between the inner and outer bank and beyond the outer bank two rock-cut ditches showed signs of re-cutting and shoring

with stone-slab revetting. Other indications of an extended period of occupation of the enclosed areas beyond the house was the repair and remodelling of the enclosure wall on two separate occasions and the consolidation of both earthen banks with stone revetting.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: University of Aberdeen Development Trust in partnership with the Tarbat Discovery Centre

Candy Hatherley, Aoife Gould and Gordon Noble – University of Aberdeen

(Source: DES)

Site surveyed at a scale of 1:500 using plane-table, self-reducing alidade and dGPS.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG) 20-21 April 2015.