Culsh

This souterrain, or underground storehouse, shows the characteristic curved plan, 14.3m long and 1.8m wide and high at the inner end. It was constructed by digging a trench into the rocky subsoil, lining it with drystone walling and roofmg it with substantial stone slabs. When it was cleared out c 1850 it was found to be fIlled 'nearly to the top with ... a rich unctuous earth' which suggests that it had been infIlled deliberately, like souterrains further south. There is a cup-mark near the base of the north wall.

The visitor scrambles into the darkness, pressed by the lintels towards the floor. On rounding the curve, the passage opens up and out into a round-ended space. The stillness of the air and the evenness of the temperature inside Culsh suggest that such structures are best interpreted as storehouses; the adjoining timber house which it served presumably lay just upslope. A considerable quantity of agIicultural produce could be stored in this structure, which perhaps indicates some centralisation of the control of food by later prehistoric times.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Grampian’, (1986).