Castle Menzies Home Farm

NN84NW 29 8317 4896 and 8314 4888

NN 835 490: During ploughing, a stone was brought to the surface. Excavation revealed an oval pit 2.5m x 1.3m and 0.5m below the surface. Three rotary querns lay flat in the pit and a fourth rested against the side. Each stone was 0.45m in diameter. Under the quern stones at the S end, sherds of coarse undecorated black pottery, including 3 pieces of rim, were found. There had been a hearth, in which there were small fragments of charcoal and bone, under the quern stones at the N end of the pit. 75m S of the above site, another stone was turned up and excavation revealed the remains of a probable Iron Age burial in pure sand, 1.80m x 1.0m and 0.75m below the surface. No side slabs were found. At the N end, three small stones had been set up; the middle stone was set horizontally and flanked by two pointed upright stones.

In front of these stones was a black staining, beneath which was rough cobbling. Very small flakes of bone and charcoal were found.

B Clark 1970.

Miss Clark (E I Clark, Fasgadh, Weem) indicated the site of the pit at NN 8317 4896 in a ploughed field. The querns lie outside the farmhouse of Castle Menzies Home Farm at NN 8320 4925. The pottery is in the possession of P R Ritchie (I A M) who identified it as Iron Age. The alleged Iron Age burial was at NN 8314 4888.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (A A) 6 March 1975.

Scheduled as [Castle Menzies], Home Farm, ring-ditch. Location indicated at NN c. 8315 4884.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 28 February 2000.