Milton Of Ruthven

NO24NE 100 2933 4891

A rectilinear palisaded enclosure with a central roundhouse is located on gently sloping ground overlooking the River Isla to the SW and adjacent to Milton of Ruthven farmhouse to the S (NO24NE 90). The central roundhouse is fringed on its S perimeter with post-holes and measures about 9m to 10m in diameter. The palisaded enclosure has rounded corners and measures about 35m from N to S with a definite E side and the faint cropmark of a possible W side; no entrance is immediately apparent, but the feature is faint and often obscured by other cropmarks. Intersecting the curving NW perimeter of the palisaded enclosure are a series of pits that might suggest an alignment running from NE to SW.

About 55m to the N of the enclosure an irregular cropmark may represent the remains of a sunken-floored roundhouse with attached roofless souterrain extending in an S-shape to the E. At least three further souterrains are visible within the palisaded enclosure: immediately to the E, and perhaps within the outer wall of the roundhouse, is a rectilinear souterrain about 7m long that widens at its E end. To the SSE of the roundhouse an intermittent cropmark might represent the remains of a souterrain with at least three lintels still in-situ, while another to its W is shorter with more lintels still in-situ. A slightly curved cropmark with a lighter halo to the S of the enclosure may be the remains of a roofless stone lined souterrain associated with at least one pit. The visible area to the W of the enclosure has several broad linear cropmarks extending from NNE to SSW, between two of which is a macula that could represent the remains of a roundhouse. Several other poorly defined maculae to the N might also be the remains of roundhouses and together with the possible souterrains could represent an unenclosed settlement.

Information from RCAHMS (SMDG) 6 January 2005