Ironshill

NO65SE 23.00 670 501

NO65SE 23.01 NO 670 500 Cist

NO 670 501. The crop-marks of what is probably an unenclosed settlement have been noted on a gentle NE-facing slope W of Ironshill. There are at least three circular marks probably representing the sites of houses measuring up to 15m in diameter, and also a ring-ditch of comparable size.

RCAHMS 1978

This cropmark complex is being investigated in a series of discrete trenches.

1: large pit-circle defined house, plus associated features.

2: at least one rectangular structure, represented by post holes, with a probable storage pit.

3: probable penannular ring ditch house.

4: trial trench through a glacial gully, filled with c.2m of hillwash, overlying a black, organic deposit, probably representing an ancient marshy area.

J Kendrick 1982

During the winter of 1982-3 two late prehistoric circular buildings were excavated beside the Aberdeen-Dundee Railway line. The small (ring-ditch) house is one of many aerial photographs of the area. The larger (post-ring) house had an external diameter of almost 20m, a single ring of supporting posts for the roof, an entrance porch with evidence of a hinged door, an outside stone pavement and traces of a stone wall 1m thick increasing to 2m thick at the entrance.

Rectangular settings of 5 and 6 postholes were investigated, together with a patch of pebble flooring with no sign of superstructure, and an infant's cist (see NO65SE 23.01). A large pit filled with boulders and a parallel pair of linear ditches closely post-dated the large building.

D Pollock 1983