Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Newmill, Bankfoot
Souterrain (Prehistoric)
Site Name Newmill, Bankfoot
Classification Souterrain (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Redgorton
Canmore ID 27007
Site Number NO03SE 13.01
NGR NO 0846 3238
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/27007
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Auchtergaven
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
NO03SE 13.01 0846 3238
During gravel-digging a souterrain was discovered at Newmill. It was built of massive drystone masonry. Of only average length (20m for the passage-like chamber and 4m for the entrance ramp), the souterrain was much wider than most (2.5m near the entrance spreading to 4m wide at the terminal), and its walls were preserved to their full height of 2m through-out most of their length. The curving chamber was floored with neatly laid slabs and boulders and the roof was probably a light, wooden construction covered with thatch or skins. There was a second entrance, a short, narrow unpaved passage entering practically horizontally from the sloping surface of the hillside. At the end of its use, the souterrain was deliberately destroyed.
Forms part of settlement NO03SE 13.
For beaker and cremation found in same excavation see NO03SE 20. Published plan (Watkins 1980) indicates location of excavation at NO 0851 3239.
T Watkins 1977
This paper considers the evidence for the abandonment of souterrains in that part of east central Scotland characterized by Wainwright as 'southern Pictland'. The evidence suggests that most souterrains were deliberately destroyed, or at least infilled, and that none seems to have outlasted the early 3rd century AD. The process of destruction seems to have been associated with a significant degree of ritual activity not previously noted. It is postulated that the evidence would allow for a single episode of abandonment (a 'souterrain abandonment horizon'), in the late second or early third century AD, which might be related to a major reorientation of social and political structures, perhaps associated with changes in Roman frontier policy.
I Armit 1999
Magnetometry (21 October 2013 - 22 November 2013)
Area 4 is located upon a prominent hilltop immediately north of Newmill Farm and 100m west of the excavated Newmills settlement and souterrain site (Jacobs UK – Cultural Heritage Asset Nos. 42-45). Cropmarks indicative of a possible souterrain have been identified right on the edge of the survey area within this field (Jacobs UK – Cultural Heritage Asset No. 38; SMR MPK2331). No anomalies of obvious archaeological potential
have been identified by the geophysical survey at this location although tentatively, two anomalies have been assigned archaeological potential. A vague linear band of anomalies, M, may be of archaeological interest, perhaps indicating a ditch, whilst to the south a very faint circular trend, N, measuring 15m in diameter, may be due to an enclosure. The vast majority
of anomalies identified within this area are thought to be due to variations in the magnetic sand and gravel superficial deposits and it should be noted here that these conditions generally provide poor to average results for the clear identification of anomalies of archaeological potential. Within the east of the dataset, the linear trend running parallel to the
field boundary is due to agricultural activity, probably a ploughing headland.
Broad areas of magnetic disturbance along the eastern edge of the field are modern in origin, probably resulting from the construction of the adjacent road.
Information from Archaeological Services WYAS, November 2013.
OASIS ID: archaeol11-164900 (no.4).
