Building record MAB21459 - SKENE'S WOOD, GREENLANDS, BALBITHAN

Remains of hut circles and field system recorded at this site.

Remains of hut circles and field system recorded at this site. At least ten hut circles, with entrances in the south or southeast and diameters varying from 6 m - 12.5 m and height 0.2 m - 0.8 m. Banks vary from 1.5 m - 4 m wide. The 'cairns' are probably stone clearance heaps. They vary from 3 m - 5 m in diameter and from 0.45 m - 0.83 m in height, one lies within a metre of a hut circle. In March 2005, two hut circles and associated clearance cairns were examined as part of the Kintore Landscape Project. The hut circles survived up to two courses high, with patchily surviving occupation surfaces. Roundhouse 1 had a ring-ditch, together with numerous chipped and coarse stone tools and pot sherds. Fragments of charcoal were also retrieved. Roundhouse 2 provided one solitary find, a possible stone pot lid. The cairns were simply clearance cairns and contained no artefacts or structures. Forestry Commission have recorded an earthwork bank at NJ 8132 1792, running approximately north-south, and a denuded boundary bank running from NJ81211773 to NJ 81211769. The Balbithan Prehistoric Landscape Project undertook a five-year programme of keyhole excavations in and around the hut circles and clearance cairns in Balbithan Wood (see NJ81NW0230). In 2011 a series of test pits were dug around each hut circle and keyhole excavations carried out on two of the hut circles. In situ charcoal was recovered from each roundhouse and one external feature recorded. Artefacts from the roundhouse included worked flint and quartz, and a Mesolithic core. Season 3 (August 2013) examined Hut Circle 18 and nearby Cairn 3. The hut circle measured 6.2 m in diameter with a stone rich bank up to 0.6 m high and 1.2 m thick. The bank contained numerous sherds of Carinated and Impressed Ware, indicating a probable Neolithic or Early Bronze Age ring cairn rather than a Middle Bronze Age hut circle. Cairn 3 measured 6.6 m in diameter and up to 0.75 m high, although it had been flattened by forest ploughing. It appears to be a small clearance cairn around a glacial erratic, subsequently enlarged with the addition of a kerb, and then abutted by linear clearance. Finally there were two small collections of stones, the first associated with a cluster of nine cores, the other associated with two pieces of a leaf-shaped arrowhead. Work in 2014 has included survey of all the hut circles and a later 'enclosure' containing a later longhouse. Two possible hut circles were investigated, one found to be a natural, the other confirmed as a hut circle. A circa 5 m diameter clearance cairn was found on investigation to be a linear cairn, circa 9 m long, the body of the cairn containing of hand thrown pottery, and may have been a long cairn. Further work was undertaken at the cairn in 2015, and numerous pottery sherds and lithics recovered. Excavation at the 40 m diameter enclosure revealed a substantial stone bank with extensive stone revetment, the enclosure subsequently levelled and the longhouse constructed. Pottery and a hammer stone were recovered from the interior.

Period Notes
Radiocarbon dating Balbithan 2015: SUERC-65804 (GU39988), 4859 +/- 30, calibrated to 3704 -3538 BC (at 2 sigma); SUERC-65805 (GU39989), 4784+/-30, calibrated to 3642-3521 BC (at 2 sigma). Also SUERC- 9498 hut circle 13 hearth feature, 3230 +/-35 BP, calibrated to 1620-1450 BC at 2 sigma; SUERC-9502 hut circle 13 hearth feature, 3265+/-35 BP, calibrated to1630-1450 BC at 2 sigma; SUERC-9503 hut circle 13 hearth feature, 3270+/-35 BP, calibrated to 1630-1450 BC at 2 sigma; SUERC- 36870 pit outside hut circle 13 3190 +/- 30 BP, calibrated to 1513-1414 BC at 2 sigma. See also NJ81NW0230

540/1419 F22 0061-2, 540/1419 F22 0061-2 (Air-vertical Photograph). SAB14478.

BALB001, BALB001 (Ground Photograph). SAB19343.

BALB015, BALB015 (Ground Photograph). SAB19348.

Author unknown, , PRESS & JOURNAL, 29/03/04 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1416.

CALLANDER, JG, 1925, LONG CAIRNS AND OTHER PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS IN ABERDEENSHIRE AND BANFFSHIRE. IN: PSAS 59 (1924-5) 21-8 , 23-4 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2310.

SIMPSON, WD, 1943, PROVINCE OF MAR, 37, 64 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1676.

AOC ARCHAEOLOGY, 2005, KINTORE LANDSCAPE PROJECT, PHASE 2: BALBITHAN FOREST. DATA STRUCTURE REPORT, DSR (Bibliographic reference). SAB3621.

COOK, M, 2006, DES VOL6, 2005, p.16 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3948.

hut circles

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2009, DISCOVERY & EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND, VOL 9, 2008, P.20 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3496.

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2012, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND. NEW SERIES, VOLUME 12, 2011, p.17 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5536.

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2014, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND, NEW SERIES, VOLUME 14, 2013, p.21 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5483.

MACSWEEN, A, 2016, BALBITHAN, KINTORE, ABERDEENSHIRE: REPORT ON THE PREHISTORIC POTTERY (Bibliographic reference). SAB7469.

COOK, M, 2021, BALBITHAN WOOD, KINTORE, ABERDEENSHIRE: THE EVALUATION OF PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPES. (Bibliographic reference). SAB8226.

May 17 2005 , GR/167753/2-8, GR/167753/2-8 (Ground Photograph). SAB18274.

Record last edited

Nov 14 2025 10:26AM