Excavations at Boonies, Westerkirk, and the nature of Romano-British settlement in eastern Dumfriesshire

Abstract

NY 304901. Instead of the non-defensive stone enclosures of Tyne-Forth, E Dumfriesshire appears to have had embanked enclosures with interior scooping and timber houses. Their assumed medieval date has been disproved by excavation at Boonies, a 0.07ha settlement with a TPQ of late 1st century AD. Within the enclosure were the ring-trenches of 13 round houses, mostly occupied only one at a time, but in the end five houses co-existed and one had encroached on the bank area.