- The wider national picture suggests that settlement during the earliest Bronze Age – the Beaker-using Chalcolithic phase between 2500 and 2200 BC – comprised ephemeral structures, perhaps reflecting a transient lifestyle with some degree of mobility. These have not left traces which survive into the present, so they are rarely identified archaeologically. Only one possible example has been identified in the region, an oval structure associated with Beaker pottery, excavated at Curragh South, near Girvan. Occasional finds of Beaker pottery in pits and other features, such as the Beaker sherd recovered from a pit at Mountfode Motte, Ardrossan, infer a Beaker presence in locations where more tangible evidence of occupation has either been lost, or is lacking. The situation in the Early Bronze Age, the period which sees the first use of tin-alloyed artefacts, is similar.
- At this time, monumentality appears to be expressed more through ritual structures such as the stone circles of Machrie Moor and the burial cairns, with circular timber monuments like Dunragit and Hunterston perhaps suggesting a late use potentially extending into the Middle Bronze Age.
- During the later part of the Bronze Age, there appears to be a move from the expression of monumentality through ritual structures towards a greater use of monumentality in the domestic sphere. The principal expression of this is the roundhouse. These circular post-built structures feature a steeply pitched roof and sometimes a projecting entrance porch. Some measure up to 12 to 14m in diameter.
- The roundhouse is conventionally seen as an Iron Age type, but there is increasing evidence that the form had its origins in the later Bronze Age. In South West Scotland, however, confirmed Bronze Age settlement sites remain rare. Identifying them is made harder because often these sites have almost negligible quantities of material culture. Finds of metalwork are almost unknown in association with domestic structures, and the ceramic repertoire is problematic. It differs markedly from the distinctive wares occurring in funerary contexts while appearing very similar to domestic wares of the succeeding Iron Age. The continued use of lithics, following a distinct repertoire characteristic of the Bronze Age, is helpful, but radiocarbon dating plays a crucial role in identifying potential candidates.
- The earliest example of a roundhouse structure identified to date was excavated at Tormore. It was a multi-phase structure, occupied – it was argued – in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The presence of a Beaker sherd also encouraged the excavators to suggest that it may have had its origins in a very early Chalcolithic phase. Sometimes the interior of these structures might be levelled, creating a platform. This characteristic was again evidenced during the excavations on Arran. The evidence from the Machrie North, Tormore and Kilpatrick excavations suggested that these house structures, though unenclosed, were associated with a field system, which again had potential origins that dated much earlier, perhaps as far back as the Late Neolithic.
- More recent excavations at Blairhall Burn revealed an important Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement site comprising two roundhouses, a possible ring-groove structure and two burnt mounds. As well as a range of radiocarbon dates, all falling within the 2nd millennium BC, this site proved important as it also revealed the first dated group of diagnostic Bronze Age pottery from a secure context in a domestic setting.
- A Middle Bronze Age date range of 1530 BC to 1250BC was also recovered from a roundhouse site excavated at Ross Bay, Kirkcudbright. This particular example measured 10m in diameter with an entrance porch, and like Blairhall Burn, it produced a small assemblage of coarse pottery (Ronan and Higgins 2005).
- The closing stages of the Bronze Age suggest that by this time, some manner of enclosure might have been employed in association with the settlement. At Whitecrook Quarry a palisaded enclosure was identified in association with several ring-groove houses and other features which together provided evidence for four phases of occupation. Dating evidence suggested a range between 800 BC and 510 BC for the palisade slot, a date which straddles the transition between the Late Bronze Age and the earliest phase of the Iron Age. While we cannot be altogether certain that the palisade slot was created during the Late Bronze Age, rather than the earliest Iron Age, it appears that this particular location was favoured as an occupation site over an extended period.
- The re-use of certain locations over hundreds, if not thousands, of years by the prehistoric communities of South West Scotland certainly seems to be supported. In addition to the examples listed previously, excavations at Aird Quarry revealed two phases of ring-groove roundhouse dating to the Late Bronze Age, on a site which also produced evidence for Late Neolithic and Iron Age activity.
- A similar scenario is evidenced by excavations at Curragh South, near Girvan. Here, a roundhouse associated with ancillary four-poster type timber structures formed the final phase of use. The site yielded radiocarbon dates spanning 1500 BC to 500 BC, potentially indicating occupation in the Late Bronze Age, with traces of earlier activity also noted. The roundhouse overlay an earlier palisaded enclosure with monumental gateway, and traces of an oval structure associated with Beaker pottery. The density of features on the site suggests it may have been occupied, though not necessarily continuously, from the Chalcolithic right through the Bronze Age, and onwards even, perhaps, into the Iron Age.
- Outwith South West Scotland, there has been increasing indication that the earliest occupation of defensive hillfort sites first occurs in the Late Bronze Age. So far, such evidence has been particularly elusive in the region: however, a residual Late Bronze Age presence has been identified at sites including Auldhill and Dundonald.