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.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  SM4878_Legal Doc

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600010786)

Summary

Description

The monument comprises 4 ring cairns. One is partially excavated; it is 15m in external and 4m in internal diameter and is surrounded by a low stone circle of which some 9 stones measuring up to 1m tall survive. The other three measure respectively about 8.5, 7.5 and 10.2m in diameter. The latter is complex and multiperiod; it has remains of a fine stone circle round it about 14m in diameter.

The cairns are much obscured by whin and may be larger. On the summit of Campstone Hill is a burial cairn about 6.5m across by 0.5m high. The monument also includes a possible house platform up to 7m across bounded on the downhill side by a 2m wide stony bank, up to 300 small clearance cairns, and numerous lengths of stony bank forming at least one field system. At the NW end of the area is an embanked hollow way and banks defining a further field system, of the pre-improvement period.

The monument comprising the elements referred to above and an area round them in which traces of activities associated with their use will survive is contained within an irregularly shaped area bounded on the SW side by the dyke marking the top of the presently cultivated farmland and measuring up to 600m NW/SE by up to 330m transversely as delineated in red on the attached plan.

Statement of National Importance

The monument is of national importance as a surviving fragment of the pre-improvement landscape, including fine ring cairns, a house platform of a type unusual in Grampian, and parts of at least three field systems, which has the potential to improve our understanding of prehistoric funerary and ritual practices and also of prehistoric and pre-improvement farming practices.

References

Bibliography

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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Find out more about scheduling and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.