Description
The monument comprises the remains of an enclosed settlement represented by cropmarks visible on oblique aerial photographs. The enclosure is likely to date to the 1st millennium BC or early 1st millennium AD. The monument was first scheduled in 1996, but the scheduled area did not include all the archaeological remains: this rescheduling rectifies this.
The monument lies in arable farmland at around 60m OD and comprises a sub-square enclosure with an annex attached to the west and north. The enclosure measures approximately 35m by 35m along its major axes and is defined by a ditch some 3m wide. The north, west and south sides of the enclosure are clearly visible, and there is an entrance on the west. The 'darker' areas visible inside the enclosure are likely to indicate the remains of internal buildings. The annex attached to the west of the enclosure measures approximately 30m by 50m along its major axes. Two sides of the annex are clearly visible, but the NW side is not as clear on the aerial photographs. A further 'dark' area lies within the annex, again possibly representing the remains of an internal structure. A thinner, truncated linear feature runs along the top of the annex and enclosure, but its relationship to either is not clear.
The area to be scheduled is irregular on plan, to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.
Statement of National Importance
Cultural Significance
The monument's cultural significance can be expressed as follows:
Intrinsic characteristics
The monument survives as a 'negative' feature clearly identifiable as a cropmark on oblique aerial photographs. The cropmark shows two distinct 'dark' areas within the main enclosure, which may represent the structural remains of a settlement. A similar 'dark' area appears within the annex. A further, irregularly-shaped 'dark' cropmark is visible outside the enclosure, about 20m from its SE corner; researchers suggest this may represent the remains of hearths and craft or industrial activity.
In 2006 a geophysical survey was carried out over the site as part of the Traprain Law Environs Project. As well as confirming the presence and location of the features visible on aerial photographs, the survey recorded what may be an entrance causeway near the northern end of the western side of the enclosure and another possible causeway at the south-western corner of the enclosure. The survey also recorded what could be the remains of an outer ditch on the southern and western sides of the enclosure, which appears to include a possible ring-ditch, some 16m in diameter.
As a whole, the monument possesses excellent archaeological potential and could represent multiple phases of occupation.
Contextual characteristics
Rectilinear enclosures like this are relatively unusual in south-eastern Scotland (they are more common in northern England). Artefactual and environmental evidence is likely to survive across the site and could significantly enhance our understanding of the date of the monument and its longevity, as well as helping us to understand the everyday lives of those who lived here. The artefact assemblage could demonstrate the range of contacts these people had, both locally as well at a regional level. The site may offer an opportunity to investigate whether the Roman occupation of southern Scotland had any impact on the local (native) Iron Age economy.
The site is located on the fertile coastal plain of the Firth of Forth and is part of a wider settlement pattern associated with the substantial earthworks at Traprain Law. Researchers have suggested that the wider distribution of these settlements is both clustered and dispersed, this example being an important variant in the regional pattern.
National Importance
This monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to make a significant addition to our understanding of the past, in particular, the nature of settlement and economy in the first millennium BC and early first millennium AD. Its loss would diminish our future ability to appreciate and understand later prehistoric and early historic settlement in eastern and southern Scotland.