74 A GALLOWAY STONE-AGE VILLAGE. 
A Gattoway STONE-AGE VILLAGE. By Mr Lupovic M‘LELLAN 
Mann, F.S.A.Scot., Glasgow. 
The following notes are portions of a paper read to the 
Society of Antiquarians of Scotland :— 
Perhaps one of the most startling and valuable discoveries. 
ever made in Scotland with regard to the early inhabitants was. 
the disclosure recently of a row of little dwelling-places, partly 
underground, in Stoneykirk Parish, Wigtownshire. Their 
chronological position seems to reach back beyond the Bronze 
Period, say before 1000 B.c. 
The attention of Mr Beckett was attracted by a row of 
depressions on the surface of a wooded area, and I was quickly 
informed of the discovery, and undertook an examination of the 
place. If there had been one depression only, probably no: 
notice would have been taken of the place. The depressions, 
however, are five in number. Some of them were dug into, and 
discovered to be the tops of silted pits containing relics of an 
early period and substructures of wood. Before excavation they 
were shallow, basin-shaped, slightly oval in outline, but not 
very clearly defined and scarcely noticeable. The greatest depth 
at the centre of any one was about 1 foot, and the greatest area. 
about 10 feet by 8 feet. 
The sites are situated on the edge of a plateau. The ground 
has apparently never been cultivated, and is covered by wild 
vegetation, consisting of a few small trees of different kinds and 
a growth of fern. The row of depressions almost coincides with 
the 50-feet contour line. The area enclosed by the contour line 
does not at any point rise more than 2 or 3 feet above the 50-feet 
elevation. The sea at its nearest point is just 1000 yards distant 
south-east from the sites, and the intervening stretch of country 
is flat and low-lying. While portions of the surrounding country 
were once marshy, the ancient settlement being on the higher 
portion of the plantation could not have been surrounded by 
water or swamp, nor could it have been on the edge of a water- 
covered area. 
The substructures revealed by the excavations at Sites Nos. 
3 and 5 were oval in plan. The ovals had obtusely rounded 
ends, somewhat like rectangles with rounded corners. 
The compass showed that in Site No. 1 the longer axis of 
ae. 
