Claish
Timber Hall (Neolithic)
Site Name Claish
Classification Timber Hall (Neolithic)
Alternative Name(s) Claish Farm, Clash
Canmore ID 70272
Site Number NN60NW 57
NGR NN 63550 06567
NGR Description Centre
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/70272
- Council Stirling
- Parish Callander
- Former Region Central
- Former District Stirling
- Former County Perthshire
NN60NW 57 6355 0656
See also NN60NW 22.
Aerial photography has revealed the cropmark of what may be a subrectangular neolithic building in gently undulating arable field 250m SSW of Clash farmhouse. It measures about 25m from NNE to SSW by 9.5m transversly within the line of a wall comprising a series of closely-spaced post-holes. The end-walls are rounded, and there is a possible entrance-gap at the mid-point of the SSW wall. The interior appears to be divided into a number of bays by at least six lines of post-holes, or trenches, drawn across the short axis of the building; on the NNE and SSW the divisions are curved, mirroring the external walls, but elsewhere they form roughly straight lines.
Information from RCAHMS (JBS) 9 October 1995
NN 635 065 This cropmark was exposed and partly excavated by a joint team from the universities of Stirling and Glasgow. The structure measured 25m N-S by 9m wide. It comprised seven separate elements:
1 Curved ends formed by substantial conjoining post-holes.
2 Two lines of closely spaced post-holes joining the ends.
3 Arcs of massive conjoined post-holes set some 1.8-2m in from each end.
4 Two lines of more widely spaced post-holes joining these arcs.
5 At least two slots apparently dividing the internal space:
that nearer the N end joins post-holes of element 4: that nearer the S end is linked to post-holes of element 4, but does not run right across the structure.
6 Further more irregular arrangements of substantial post-holes, particularly in the S half.
7 An area relatively unencumbered by post-holes in which there were two features (a and b) and an area (c) showing evidence of intense and repeated burning and interpretable as hearths, but whose relationship with the structure could not be demonstrated. One of these features (a) had seen repeated episodes of burning; it had then been lined with pot sherds, on which further fires were set.
A large quantity of pottery was recovered, all identifiable as round-based Early Neolithic wares. Only a few fragments of possibly struck quartz and one piece of Arran pitchstone were recovered.
The overall scale and internal arrangements of the structure closely parallel those at Balbridie in Kincardineshire (now Aberdeenshire), although different building techniques seem to have been used to achieve them.
Sponsor: Arts & Humanities Research Board.
G J Barclay, K Brophy and G MacGregor 2001.
Scheduled (with NN60NW 22) as 'Claish Farm, palisaded enclosures and timber hall... the remains of three overlapping palisaded enclosures and a timber hall of prehistoric date represented by cropmarks on oblique aerial photographs'.
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 2 December 2003.
Aerial Photographic Transcription (8 March 1991 - 9 April 1991)
An aerial transcription was produced from oblique aerial photographs. Information from Historic Environment Scotland (BM) 31 March 2017.
Note (21 November 2022)
The location, classification and period of this site have been reviewed and changed from CROPMARK(S) (PERIOD UNKNOWN), TIMBER HALL (NEOLITHIC).
