- The Iron Age settlement of South West Scotland comes in many varied forms, which change over time. At the heart of these various types lies one consistent form of structure: the roundhouse. These circular dwellings sometimes survive in vestigial form in upland locations as a rickle of stones, usually grassed over. Such scant traces are all that survives of a circular footing. In lowland areas, the sites of roundhouses can only be discerned as cropmarks or – when the topsoil is stripped back – patches of discoloured soil that show infilled cut features like ditches and postholes.
- Roundhouse structures have a long history which dates back at least to the Late Bronze Age and potentially even earlier (see Chapter 6 Chalcolithic and Bronze Age). They tend to measure between 10 and 14m in diameter, their locations marked by a circle of postholes that once held sturdy timber posts. This post-ring may be accompanied by an outer ring groove, which shows the location of an outer wall comprising a woven screen of wattle and daub. Sometimes, a double ring of internal posts is present, as revealed at the Black Loch of Myrton. The structure may also be represented by a double ring-groove, as at Cowdie Knowe, Urr. Sometimes there is evidence of some kind of porch structure at the entrance, although this seems to be a form unrepresented in South West Scotland.
- The way in which these roundhouse structures were incorporated into settlements also changed throughout the Iron Age. In the Late Bronze Age and into the earliest Iron Age, roundhouses were found in small unenclosed groups, perhaps housing an extended family unit. An example dating to the Iron Age can be seen at Whitecrook Quarry, where traces of two roundhouse structures were found in associated with an empty palisade-built enclosure, interpreted by the excavator as a stock enclosure. Comparable examples have been excavated at Drumflower, East Challoch, and Myrtle Cottage – discovered during works associated with the A75 Dunragit Bypass (see Dunragit) – as well as Fox Plantation, and Gallow Hill, Girvan.
- This apparent progression may not be clearcut, however. At South Boreland, Dunragit, not far from Whitecrook Quarry, two groups of roundhouse structures were identified during the excavation of a larger, multi-period site. The northern group was unenclosed, while the southern group were set within palisaded enclosures. The site yielded Early Iron Age dates but there was evidence for complex phasing within this date range, with the unenclosed northern group potentially post-dating the southern enclosed group, countering expectations. What was also evident at this site was the longevity of the occupation here, with the five ring-groove structures potentially spanning a period of 540 years (MacIver and Walker 2024, 8).
- As the Early Iron Age progressed, there was a trend towards placing the roundhouses within an enclosed area, separating them from their wider environment. Such separation could be viewed as a defensive measure protecting livestock from predation by wild animals or theft, but it could also reflect a deliberate differentiation between the domestic realm and the wider landscape beyond. This progression from unenclosed to enclosed roundhouse is illustrated by the two phases of settlement at the Curragh South. The earlier phase at the Curragh South comprised an unclosed roundhouse with an ancillary structure, dated to between 1550 and 600 BC, that is, the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age (Barbour and McNicol 2025). The later phase had the same arrangement of structures, but this time enclosed within a palisade with a monumental post-built entrance.
- In other locations, even this simple palisaded enclosure seems to have been further elaborated by later occupants. Excavations of the substantially banked and scooped settlement forms characteristic of the eastern part of the region (such as the examples from Adie’s Brae, Moffat, Boonies, Westerkirk and Carronbridge, Thornhill) have often revealed traces of an early palisade feature beneath. There have been some exceptions, however. The multivallate ditched settlement at Woodend Farm, Johnstonebridge, by contrast, revealed no trace of a preceding palisade structure beneath its three sub-oval enclosure bank and ditch features (Banks 2002).
- During the Middle Iron Age, in the period leading up to and including the Roman occupation of South West Scotland, there is evidence for an increasing monumentalisation of the roundhouse. In South West Scotland, this can come in many forms, with both timber and stone-built constructions viewed as representative of regional traditions that extend far beyond the region.
- Perhaps the most striking form in South West Scotland is the crannog, which is particularly numerous. Crannogs were an early focus of antiquarians, with prominent figures like Robert Munro investigating sites at Buiston, Kilmaurs and Dowalton Loch. Typically, the crannogs of South West Scotland are found in bodies of inland water, and they are usually, but not always, built using ‘packwerk’ construction. Here, piles of brushwood, often comprising cut branches of alder, are laid in a mound and pinned into place using massive oak piles and sills. A roundhouse structure is then built on top of the mound. Over time, the mound slumps and the site becomes waterlogged, so the remains of the earlier structure are incorporated into a reworked mound, and a new house structure is built on top. Recent research has subjected some of these sites to modern survey and excavation techniques, in many cases as part of the Scottish Crannogs Project. Amongst the sites investigated in this way by Anne Crone, Graham Cavers, John Henderson and others are Buiston, Cults Loch, Castle Kennedy; Dorman’s Island, Whitefield Loch and Loch Arthur, New Abbey.
- Once thought to be absent in the region, increasing numbers of souterrains have now been recorded and a number of possible examples identified on aerial photographs. The souterrain is another variant on the monumental roundhouse theme, with the roundhouse in this instance being associated with a subterranean chamber. These may be stone- or timber-lined. Originally thought to be defensive in nature, the type is now thought to have functioned as an underground storage space, where surplus agricultural produce was kept at a constant temperature throughout the year.
- Two examples have been excavated. The earliest to be explored was at Ardeer, Stevenston, excavated by John Hunter in the early 1970s. Unfortunately, all that survived was some of its structural elements, the site having been re-used as an ornamental garden feature or grotto in the 19th century. Because of this late re-use, its prehistoric origins were dismissed until Hunter argued that it represented something far more ancient. At the time, his argument seemed weak as the type was so poorly represented across the region. Aerial photography in the last decades of the 20th century has, however, revealed more potential examples across Galloway. Then, in the early 2000s, a complex souterrain with associated roundhouse was investigated during developer-led excavations at Auchrannie, Arran. The site was not fully excavated until 2013, when the souterrain was shown to be a complex feature composed of two main passageways, each employing different construction techniques. One was stone-lined, and the other potentially timber-lined (Williamson 2017). A third souterrain – another timber-lined example – has recently been identified further inland, at Kilmarnock Road, Mauchline, where it was found in association with a roundhouse structure and a fence line.
- Further east, in the areas around Nithsdale, there is a monumental roundhouse type comprising a single roundhouse or a group of roundhouses within an enclosed area embellished with substantial external earthen banks and ditches. The structure may be accompanied by one ditch or two. The site of Boonies described by its excavator George Jobey as a ‘scooped settlement,’ falls within this group, as do those at Adie’s Brae, Moffat. Carronbridge, Hayknowes Enclosures, Annan and Warden’s Dykes, Gretna. All these sites are located towards the southeast of the region. This type of settlement is seen as characteristic of South East Scotland and northern England, distributed across low-lying areas between the Tyne and the Forth. Examples of a similar form have, however, been identified and excavated further to the west, such as the example at Bankhead, Darvel.
- Many of these settlements, like the site at Boonies, are circular or oval in plan. Others – originally thought to be medieval in date – are rectangular, such as Rispain Camp and Carronbridge. Excavation has shown that some of these banked enclosures were modified and embellished over time, with early phases comprising a simple palisade-type structure typical of the Early Iron Age. It has been argued that the rectangular examples were built that way to sit within systems of rectilinear fields, but it is apparent elsewhere that circular settlements are built in close association with similar field systems, so the association is not a fixed one. Another school of thought has also questioned whether rectilinear banked enclosures like Carronbridge were in fact domestic sites at all, with finds of fragmentary human remains suggesting that they may have played an alternative role as a religious site or shrine. Recent work at Adie’s Brae, Moffat, has however thrown some doubt on this theory. Here, the remains of a single individual – a male, aged 17 or over – appear to have been placed either within or beneath a roundhouse structure within a scooped settlement. This suggests that in some situations, the deceased might be incorporated into the domestic structure for some reason. Such a scenario seems more likely, since only a single individual was present on the site, than the possibility that similar structures might have been constructed and used specifically as houses of the dead.
- Monumental architecture worked in stone is also characteristic of the region. Brochs (like the example at Doon Castle, Ardwell), and their potentially related structural form, the galleried dun (like Castle Haven, Kirkandrews), tend to occur along the Atlantic seaboard and are characteristic of the western portion of the region around Galloway. No doubt on account of their sometimes dramatic character, they have been exhaustively studied from the time of the antiquarians onwards, but none have been excavated, as opposed to surveyed, in modern times. They were once viewed as an alien, intrusive form brought into the region by an immigrant population, but it is now being increasingly argued that the brochs and galleried duns represent elaboration of the roundhouse form. Like the crannog, they make an imposing visual statement within the landscape and utilise a widely available resource (stone) in areas where the digging of ditches and postholes may not be easily accomplished.
- Last but by no means least are the duns and forts which proliferate across the region. These may take the form of multivallate hilltop forts, like Trusty’s Hill, Anwoth and The Knock, Largs. Alternatively, they may take the form of promontory forts, like Carghidown, which use a combination of ditches, banks and ramparts to cut off a neck of land on either coastal promontories or elevated river terraces. Hilltop forts often feature multiple earthen ramparts, and they are particularly prevalent in Nithsdale, with Burnswark being the region’s largest and most celebrated example. The term ‘dun’ is given to a much smaller site, home perhaps to a single extended family group, but there is still much debate as to what exactly constitutes a ‘dun’, as opposed to a small ‘fort’ or a settlement. The substantial stone-walled roundhouse structures excavated at Gourock Burn, West Kilbride, for example, might fall within this group, though the term ‘settlement’ is often used instead by modern researchers.
- Forts can vary markedly in size, with the smallest examples – such as the small fort at Seamill or the univallate ditched enclosure at Little Wood Hill – perhaps housing only an extended family. These small forts are comparable in size to the homesteads of the eastern part of the region and can sometimes be alternatively classed as duns. By contrast, the largest ones, like Burnswark and Wardlaw Hill, have the potential to house entire communities. Research suggests that the largest forts only occur in small numbers and that they may have occupied the top tier in a ‘social triangle’, providing a conspicuous place of residence for elite members in a hierarchy. Very few have been excavated, however, and the levels of material culture recovered are often sparse, casting doubt on this hypothesis (Murtagh 2014). Alternatively, they could have functioned as regional centres, occupied occasionally, perhaps on a seasonal basis, for communal activities that lay outwith normal day-to-day routines and practices. It is also possible that the way these large sites were viewed did not remain static and consistent but instead changed over time (Murtagh 2014).
- Comparisons with the Roman accounts have, however, been made. These suggest that large sites like the Mote of Mark, Castle O’er and Burnswark may have functioned as the regional centres of the Novantae, while Walls Hill, located just outwith the region in Renfrewshire, may have been the regional centre of the Damonii. Forming an intermediate group are smaller settlements, like the example from Long Knowe, Eskdale, which was described by its excavator, Roger Mercer, as a ‘farmstead enclosure of quasi-defensive function’ (Mercer 1981, 69). This site revealed evidence for as many as ten roundhouse structures, some with two or three phases of occupation.
- A decline in the fortunes of many of these monumental roundhouse types is evident in the first few centuries AD. Small quantities of Roman material culture can be found in souterrains and crannogs. Rather than envisaging them as a reaction against Roman occupation, it has been argued that they developed and thrived through contact and trade of agricultural surplus with the occupying Roman military force (Macinnes 1984). When the army withdrew, their occupants lost this opportunity to maintain status. The means and the opportunity to further elaborate these grand structures was lost, and they went into decline. In these circumstances, it has been argued that what had once been a more hegemonic society with numerous households jostling to maintain status was replaced by a far more hierarchical system. It is perhaps not surprising that some of the most notable fort and crannog sites were occupied right through to the Early Historic period, or re-occupied at that time, while others, like Cruggleton Castle, Auldhill and Dundonald Castle, became medieval centres of power. Dundonald Castle, for example, became a Royal castle in the medieval period.
- The role of these monumental roundhouses within the wider Iron Age community remains an object for further research. Did they co-exist alongside more modest settlement sites, whose inhabitants either chose not to or were unable to construct those monumental elements which have resulted in these distinctive and visually imposing sites?
- In most instances, roundhouse structures survive only as mere traces, perhaps as a circle or double circle of postholes with, if conditions allow, an associated external ring-groove with traces of a central hearth. Entrances tend to be orientated on the east side of the structure, located between the northeast and southeast (Pope 2007, 212). A recent example from Weirston Road, Kilwinning, featured two opposing entrances. This apparent discrepancy also occurs at Carronbridge, Rispain Camp, Hayknowes Enclosures and potentially at South Boreland, suggesting a regional variation.
- From such meagre offerings, it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding how domestic space and living arrangements were organised, and hence how wider cosmologies may have been reflected in day-to-day living and how routine practices may have been undertaken within the home. Instead, we are largely reliant on analogy and comparison with contemporary sites preserved to a better degree elsewhere in Scotland and mainland Britain, which may not inform particularly well on our own regional picture.
- Recent investigations at one exceptional site have, however, been helping to fill this void. This is the roundhouse site at Black Loch of Myrton (Crone and Cavers 2026). Originally classed as a crannog by Maxwell and Munro, who investigated it in the late 19th century, it was instead a roundhouse structure built on a slight prominence and linked to shore by a natural causeway. Its waterlogged situation had resulted in exceptional levels of preservation: the 12.8m diameter roundhouse comprised a double outer wall post-ring linked by tangential sill beams and an inner ring of posts circling the central hearth, with an entrance to the south. The outer wall comprised a double skin of wickerwork, which is thought to have enclosed a central layer of insulating material. The floor was laid upon a sub-floor layer composed of radial logs and bracken, overlain with wickerwork screens, with a cobbled base laid for the hearth, which showed two phases of use. The actual floor levels appeared to comprise layers of rushes, sedges and bracken. The application of dendrochronology to the structural timbers allowed a precise date of construction (435 BC) to be established for the structure. The use of Bayesian modelling in conjunction with radiocarbon dating demonstrated that the various phases of use evidenced by the sequence of hearth structures had all taken place in a brief time span of 15-35 years, suggesting intermittent occupation over a single generation.