Scheduled Monument
Green Craig,fort and homesteadSM2446
Status: Designated
Documents
Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).
The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.
Summary
- Date Added
- 08/06/1964
- Last Date Amended
- 01/12/1992
- Supplementary Information Updated
- 23/06/2015
- Type
- Prehistoric domestic and defensive: fort (includes hill fort and promontory fort); homestead
- Local Authority
- Fife
- Parish
- Creich (Fife)
- NGR
- NO 32295 21512
- Coordinates
- 332295, 721512
Description
The monument consists of a large fort and a settlement, both of the Iron Age, about 1500 to 2500 years old, which is scheduled. The fort is probably two-period, at least, with an earlier large fort enclosed by two or three ramparts surviving as low mounds and a later small fort on the summit. The later fort is defended by a stone wall
2 to 3m thick. Within the interior of the later fort are three circular houses, the largest 14m in diameter. Both the large and small forts are naturally protected on the N side by sheer cliffs. The large fort measures 220m E-W by 145m overall.
Immediately to the E of the fort is a homestead consisting of a rectilinear enclosure with a round house within it abutting the W bank. The homestead was partly excavated in 1947. Abutting the SW angle of the enclosure bank of the homestead is a platform for a circular house hitherto unrecognised. The platform, possibly associated with the fort rather than the homestead, measures about 12m in diameter.
The current scheduled area is not large enough to include all of the larger fort. The area now to be scheduled includes the forts and the homestead and an area around them within which traces of activity associated with their use will be found. It broadly respects the shape of the monument and measures 260m E-W by 170m transversely, as marked in red on the attached map.
Statement of National Importance
The monument is of national importance as a complex fort and homestead of the Iron Age which has the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of prehistoric settlement in the area.
References
Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation
About Scheduled Monuments
Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.
We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.
Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the
scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).
The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.
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