Ardestie Earth House

Ardestie Earth House lies in a fenced grass enclosure among fields off the B962 near Monikie, outside Dundee. Earth houses, or souterrains, are underground stone-lined passages found in Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany, and Ardestie's was probably built in the first two centuries AD. It survives in a remarkable state of completeness: the curving passage, now open to the sky, runs for more than 24 metres with a stone-lined drain in its floor, and beside it are the footings of the buildings that stood above ground, with the passage entrance inside one of them. Excavations in 1949 and 1950 also found a cup-and-ring marked stone built into one of the walls. Earth houses were not homes but probably stores, and the large ones in Angus may reflect the fertile farmland, perhaps even grain for the Romans; most were filled in during the late 100s. It is not signposted: park in the lay-by and walk the short path. Carlungie Earth House is two miles away.