Carlungie Earth House, Angus

As drystone wallers we are always keen to visit historic sites that feature drystone or stone, and visiting souterrains in Scotland means leaving your car on a verge and walking through some type of field. Parking up at Carlungie, we were surprised to find an entire shoulder height field of barley between us and the earth house site.

Like many of the known souterrains in Scotland, Carlungie was discovered by accident when a farmer was ploughing the field. It has been dated to the 1st or 2nd century AD and is one of the largest and most complex examples of its kind in Scotland. Carlungie is around 40m in length and has four separate entrances. The surviving walls suggest an original height of around 6 feet tall. Although the exact use for these structures is still debated, it’s likely they were some sort of storage space.

Souterrains and brochs are some of the earliest examples of drystone walling that we can see in Scotland. As drystone wallers, its hard to pass up the opportunity to see such early examples of our craft. The drystone at Carlungie reminded me of what we saw at Clachtoll Broch. Split flagstones, and large boulders with veins of snecks between them. The walls also appear to be corbelled, and the floor is paved with stones that have been dug in.

There is also evidence that the souterrain (which would have originally stood around 6ft tall and would have been covered with huge cap stones) was deliberately dismantled to this height and filled in, so the site could be used again for a newer settlement.

We’ve yet to be disappointed by a souterrain, and Carlungie was no exception.