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Hillside roundhouses is a group of Iron Age domestic settlements in Renfrewshire, comprising three circular stone structures positioned at intervals across sloping ground. The roundhouses occupy bedrock formed from Dinantian mafic lavas and tuffs, ancient volcanic rocks that weather to create shallow but workable soils suitable for Bronze and Iron Age settlement. This geological foundation provided both structural stone for building and drainage characteristics favourable to domestic habitation.
The three structures are dispersed across approximately 150 metres of landscape, suggesting either successive occupation phases or a small contemporary settlement of related households. Roundhouses of this period typically served as family dwellings, with the circular form offering structural efficiency and social significance within Iron Age Scottish communities. The Renfrewshire setting, within the fertile lowlands of west-central Scotland, places these houses within a region known to support concentrated Iron Age populations.
The monuments are protected by Historic Environment Scotland under scheduled monument reference SM12868, reflecting their archaeological importance as evidence of Iron Age domestic settlement patterns and construction practices. The roundhouses contribute to our understanding of how communities organised settlements across the varied terrain of Renfrewshire during the first millennium BC.
Hillside, roundhouses 690m WSW of and 780m and 830m SW of is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM12868. View the official record →
Hillside roundhouses is a group of Iron Age domestic settlements in Renfrewshire, comprising three circular stone structures positioned at intervals across sloping ground. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM12868.
Hillside, roundhouses 690m WSW of and 780m and 830m SW of is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM12868.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Burnbank Water, settlement 1740m S of Hillside (1.2 km), Muiredge, cairn 1050m W of (2.3 km), Dowries, cairn 495m SW of (2.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Hillside, roundhouses 690m WSW of and 780m and 830m SW of's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Hillside, roundhouses 690m WSW of and 780m and 830m SW of stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Dinantian, bedrock that formed in the Mississippian. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.