Ardeer basement

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Ardeer Souterrain (also called Stevenston Souterrain) is located in Stevenston in North Ayrshire in Scotland and was discovered in 1960 about 1.0 km from the coast on the property of the "Ardeer House", roughly examined and then backfilled with cinder and rubble. In the case of basements , a basic distinction is made between "rock-cut", "earth-cut", "stone built" and "mixed" basements. This mixed basement is unique in that the downward winding corridor leads into a natural, roughly triangular cave.

The building is listed as a Scheduled Monument .

Excavation history

The basement excavated by J. Hunter in 1973 is partly under a road or on the site of the Ardeer Recreation Club. Remnants of a door frame for an iron grille over a hole in the roof of the cave indicate a use in the 19th century. The rest of the remains represent a basement, but there are no records of this type of monument in the south-west of Scotland.

A corridor at least 13.0 m long (a part that could be another 3.0 m long is buried) lined with dry stone walls and covered with cap stones led into the cave. The width is between 1.2 and 1.55 m, and the height varies between 1.7 and 2.4 m. The capstones were 1.0 m to 1.5 m below the surface. Some undisturbed areas contained layers of deposits. They contained a stove with iron slag, bones and a fragment of glass (presumably Roman).

John Hunter concludes that while there is no datable evidence and the facility is a chimera , the pattern is similar to the Angus-type basement in terms of structure and use .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Scheduled Monument - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .

literature

  • John Hunter: Excavation at Ardeer, Ayrshire. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Vol. 105, 1972/1974, ISSN  0081-1564 , pp. 296-301 .
  • John Hunter: Stevenston. Ardeer. Basement. In: Discovery and excavation in Scotland. 1973, ISSN  0419-411X , pp. 16-17.
  • Frederick T. Wainwright: Souterrains of South Pictland. Routledge & Paul, London 1963.

Web links

Coordinates: 55 ° 38 ′ 24.3 "  N , 4 ° 44 ′ 54.6"  W.