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Remains of a circular homestead, formerly described as a fort on both the 1st and 2nd edition OS maps (circa 1867 and circa 1888), also known as 'Rob's Rede'. Regarded as a dubious fort and having 'no natural strength' by Christison in 1900, who also noted that the interior was uneven, being higher at the west and that the wall-facing stones were larger than expected for a fort. It has subsequently been reclassified as a ring-fort, then as a dun (of the small house-like sub-category) and currently as a 'circular homestead', a structure designed for a pastoral economy, to house both livestock and their guardians. In form it is a single-walled circular enclosure contained within a circular stony mound. The homestead is 32m in diameter overall and 16m diameter internally. The wall is now represented by a heap of small stones, overgrown with grass and spread to 7.7 m. The interior, dished in profile, lies 1.2 m below the crest of the wall, and externally the wall is 1 m high on the N, but elsewhere only circa 30 cm high. There is no positive trace of an entrance, but this may have been on the south where a footpath passes through the wall. Some slab-like stones lie around the site. It is situated on the western edge of a high east/west ridge with an extensive view, which is also on the edge of extensive pasture. When the OS surveyed it in 1958 they also recorded the traces of a square enclosure on the northwest side, a low turf bank circa 3m broad and 0.1m high, enclosing an area 13m square. This probably represents a fairly recent stock enclosure. Both of these features are visible on vertical aerial photographs taken by the RAF in 1953. A small trench was excavated by University of Aberdeen aimed at establishing dating evidence for the homestead. However, following identification of a large hearth abutting the wall face, the trench was not taken down further to natural and so no samples associated with the construction were obtained. Samples for deposits abutting the wall will enable dating of later occupation, and identification of these later occupation features shows that the fort underwent at least two phases of habitation.
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Angus
HER -
NO45SE0030 - ROB'S REED