A dark and mysterious place: excavations of an Iron Age settlement at Auchrannie, Brodick

Abstract

An extension to the accommodation of the Spa Resort at Auchrannie, Brodick, required the excavation of the remaining elements of a roundhouse and souterrain which had been partially excavated prior to the construction of the Spa Resort itself. These follow-up excavations revealed that the retained southern half of the roundhouse had been badly truncated through agricultural land use, while the souterrain passages remained largely intact, revealing evidence for timber- and stone-lined sections, and a group of overlapping pits and shallow passages at one end. While one of the passages appeared to have been infilled during, or not long after, the 2nd century AD, the other was not backfilled until the medieval period, possibly being left open as a void until this time. Other dates also pointed to continued reuse of portions of the site on a much smaller scale throughout later periods.