Regional Overview  

As discussed by Alexander in the 2015 essay The Iron Age sites of the period have been researched throughout the Clyde Valley, although the quality of these activities is varied. A wide range of settlement types belonging to the Iron Age reside within the Clyde Valley although there is discussion from other authors that the region has been largely overlooked in general research of the Iron Age in Scotland (Banks 2002, Murtagh 2014). The previous research which will be discussed in History of Research focused on hillforts and special sites, which is not reflective of the overall complexity of communities in the Iron Age and limits the understanding of communities throughout the Iron Age.

Since the production of the 2015 essay eight new sites attributed to the Iron Age have been discovered and intrusively investigated (Figure 1). Three waterlogged roundhouses were located at Hyndford Quarry within an area of bog which has allowed excellent preservation of the site. The wetland context of the roundhouses allowed excellent survival of organic material (O’Connell 2022). Four sites dated to the Iron Age were identified during construction of Clyde Windfarm in South Lanarkshire, an Iron Age enclosure was recorded at Woodend Hillfort (10440), while a single pit at Camps Valley were radiocarbon dated to the Iron Age. To the south a roundhouse was excavated with two long enclosures at Midlock Valley and the remains of a post-fence and non-ferrous metal working site recovered from Newton Plantation (Cox and Marshall 2023). A possible Iron Age rectangular structure at Nairn Street, Larkhall (96486, Mooney 2023), two roundhouses newly located at Chapelfield, Hamilton ( 99471, Barret 2023) and Newhouse, East Kilbride (69987, Hugget & Barret 2021).

Four known sites were also investigated, Castle Qua was confirmed as an Iron age D-shaped enclosure and Black Hill (10294) was excavated with multiperiod settlement with use during the Iron Age (Murtagh forthcoming). Two marine crannogs in the River Clyde, Old Kirkpatrick (7828) and Erskine (7863), to determine their use as domestic structures (Mackie et al 2022).