Garphar
Palisaded Settlement(S) (Period Unassigned), Roundhouse(S) (Prehistoric), Souterrain(S) (Prehistoric), Subterranean Structure(S) (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Unenclosed Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Garphar
Classification Palisaded Settlement(S) (Period Unassigned), Roundhouse(S) (Prehistoric), Souterrain(S) (Prehistoric), Subterranean Structure(S) (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Unenclosed Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 80241
Site Number NX18SW 26
NGR NX 10855 82821
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/80241
- Council South Ayrshire
- Parish Ballantrae (Kyle And Carrick)
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Kyle And Carrick
- Former County Ayrshire
NX18SW 26 10855 82821
See NX18SW 7
This complex of palisaded enclosures, timber round houses and souterrains lies on a terrace above the River Stinchar and has been recorded as cropmarks on oblique aerial photographs (RCAHMSAP 1992). A gully which may predate the settlement features is visible as a dark cropmark bisecting the remains, which belong to at least five distinct phases. These include two phases of palisaded enclosure and three of intercutting round houses, though the relative chronology of the phases cannot be established. The cropmarks of the palisaded enclosures are discontinuous but the larger measures about 40m in diameter, while the larger round houses measure between 12m and 14m in diameter.
The two phases of palisaded enclosure comprise a double palisade of two concentric trenches, while within its interior there is an eccentric arc of a single palisade that represents the other phase. Of the round houses three are set so close together that they cannot have co-existed, and two large houses cannot have stood at the same time as the double palisade. Two ‘sausage-shaped’ cropmarks extend outwards from the wall trenches of two of the houses and these are presumably souterrains.
Information from RCAHMS (DCC) 1 November 2011
Aerial Photographic Transcription (18 October 2011)
