stirling-1963-vol-1/05_122

Transcription

No. 101 -- HOMESTEADS -- No. 103
the thickness of the wall. Eight steps now remain of the
eleven reported in 1864; they are about 2 ft. 4 in. wide
by 9 in. deep, and each rises about 5 in. The uppermost
courses of the wall-faces flanking the steps show signs
of incipient corbelling.
To N., E. and S. the broch is encircled by two wasted
concentric banks the ends of which were evidently
designed to rest on the brink of the rock-slopes to the W.
They were examined in 1948-9 ¹ and were found to
represent the ruins of rubble-cored, boulder-faced walls.
The inner bank now rises to a maximum height of
6 ft. 6 in., and the outer one to 3 ft. Gaps occur in both
banks on a line with the entrance of the broch. The
"third wall", of which traces were mentioned by the
excavators of 1864 as "extending along the face of the
cliff", can be identified with some fragmentary footings
seen at a point about 40 yds. S. of the SW. end of the
outer enclosing-wall. The lip of the slope dips somewhat
at this point, and the slope itself is less steep than to
N. and S.; a wall may consequently have been built
across the dip to render access more difficult.
The small finds made in the course of the excavations
include three boulders carved with cup-and-ring
markings (No. 44); saddle and rotary querns ² ; three
hollowed pebbles, one of which resembles a crude version
of a stone cup of the kind found at West Plean
(No. 104); stone balls, one a pecked sphere with an
equatorial band in low relief; whorls and other small
stone objects; several sherds of hand-made coarse pot-
tery, and two of finer wares which might be mediaeval. ³
The coarse pottery includes one sherd with finger-tip
ornament under a thin everted rim such as has been
found in other brochs, ⁴ and two sherds of an Early
Iron Age native ware of a type found in SE. Scotland at
such places as Craigs Quarry, East Lothian. ⁵ No Roman
relics were recorded. Some of the finds are preserved in
the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland and
others in the Falkirk Burgh Museum.

833849 -- NS 88 SW -- 15 July 1953

SETTLEMENT

101. Settlement, Wheatlands (Site). National Survey
air-photographs ⁶ reveal the buried remains of a settle-
ment, in the form of crop-markings, in a cultivated field
150 yds. SSW. of Wheatlands Home Farm. The site is
at a height of about 220 ft. O.D., on a broad ridge that
forms part of the NW. slopes of the valley of the Bonny
Water. The settlement was bounded by a bank and ditch
which enclosed an oval area measuring about 200 ft. in
length from NE. to SW. by about 150 ft. transversely.
The entrance appears to have been in the NE. arc.
Within the interior there are indications of five or six
round structures, presumably huts, each measuring
between 20 ft. and 30 ft. in diameter.

816807 -- NS 88 SW (unnoted) -- 11 September 1952

HOMESTEADS

102. Homestead, Logie. This homestead. 460 yds.
NE. of Broomhill Cottage, is situated at a height of
600 ft. O.D. on the SW. slope of an unnamed ridge
which adjoins Dumyat on the W. Oval on plan (Fig. 25),
it measures 50 ft. in length from WNW. to ESE. by
40 ft. transversely within a ruinous stone wall about 7 ft.
in thickness. The entrance, 5 ft. in width, is in the S. arc.
The interior slopes down from NW. to SE., and a shelf
in the highest part provides a suitable site for a hut.

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 25.Homestead, Logie (No. 102)

A spring rises 30 yds. W. of the homestead, and the
whole of the hillside in the vicinity bears signs of
cultivation in the form of short irregular terraces, which
appear wherever the slope is not too steep and rocky. A
track which passes close to the S. of the homestead runs
from a point on the Sheriffmuir Road near the Highland-
man's Well (No. 546), 700 yds. to the NW., to a ruined
farmstead 400 yds. to the SE.

818976 -- NS 89 NW (unnoted) -- 15 October 1953

103. Homestead, Woodside. This homestead is
situated at a height of 450 ft. O.D. in the uppermost of
the cultivated fields 650 yds. SW. of Woodside farm-
house. It is D-shaped on plan (Fig. 26), the chord
running approximately E. and W. along the contour
and the arc lying below it to the N., and measures 170 ft.

1 P.F.A.N.H.S., iv (1946-9), 89 ff.
2 P.S.A.S., xc (1956-7), 38, fig. 11.
3 P.F.A.N.H.S., loc. cit., fig. 11, and National Museum of
Antiquities No. GM 27.
4 P.F.A.N.H.S., loc. cit., fig. 19, bottom right.
5 One illustrated, ibid., bottom left; P.S.A.S., lxxxvi
(1951-2), 195, fig. 6.
6 CPE/SCOT/UK 256, 5330-1.

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