Tealing Souterrain in Angus, Scotland

Just a minute’s walk from Tealing Dovecot is Tealing Earth House.

Dating from the Roman occupation of Scotland, this souterrain is well preserved. Its walls stand at 2m tall which means the corbelling is clearer to see. Originally, huge cap stones sat over the passageways, but there are only a few souterrains in Scotland that have the cap stones in place. There is a cup-marked stone set into the grass near the entrance to the souterrain, and then another built into the drystone wall near the entrance (shown in the videos below).

I find it interesting to see these ancient structures in the context of a modern environment. 2000 year old walls with a backdrop of bungalows, roads, cars and power lines. It’s also interesting to see the use of snecks. Snecks can be a bit of a controversial topic among modern drystone wallers, but Iron Age souterrains, and we at The Drystone Company, stand in defence of snecks. As drystone wallers we are always keen to visit historic sites that feature drystone or stone. It’s an amazing connection to the land and to our past to be able to understand and interpret drystone structures in this way.

To show the scale and detail of the souterrain I filmed a walkthrough, including a view of the cup and ring marked stone at the entrance.