Description

The monument was scheduled on 27/09/2007. The monument has been significantly impacted by various land-use activities. The site no longer has sufficient evidence of the monument for it to meet the criterion of national importance for a scheduled monument. It has therefore been removed from the schedule.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

There is insufficient surviving remains (and therefore insufficient character) to indicate a monument of national importance. Works on and immediately around the monument including several phases of quarrying and earth working have resulted in very poor overall survival of archaeological features and deposits, when compared to the original form of the monument.

The extent of impacts on the monument are observable in open source Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) terrain models (https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.0&lat=57.57045&lon=-3.78459&layers=10s&b=18&o=0). This shows that much of the western end of the ridge, on which the motte was located, has been quarried away, destroying up to two thirds of the monument. Investigations have shown that this quarrying began sometime between 1973 and 1988 and had ceased by 2005. The limited extent of survival of the motte means that it no longer meets the criterion of national importance.  

The designation selection guidance for scheduling is published in the Historic Environment Scotland Designations Policy and Selection Guidance 2019, Annex 1, pp 9-10, https://www.historicenvironment.scot/designation-policy.  

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS 1978, THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND MONUMENTS OF NAIRN DISTRICT, HIGHALND REGION, The archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland series No. 5, Edinburgh, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Yeoman P A 1988, MOTTES IN NORTHEAST SCOTLAND, Scot Archaeol Rev 5, 125-135.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/15602/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland