Pictish hill fort is ‘one of the largest ever’

ONE of the largest ancient settlements in Scotland has been found by archaeologists.

A team from Aberdeen University has uncovered evidence that up to 4,000 people may have lived in more than 800 huts perched high on the Tap O’ Noth near the village of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire.

Radiocarbon dating suggests it was built in the fifth to sixth centuries AD but the settlement may date back as far as the third century, which would mean it is likely to be Pictish.

Professor Gordon Noble, who led the research, said: ‘The Tap O’ Noth discovery shakes the narrative of this whole period.

‘If each of the huts we identified had four or five people living in them that means there was a population of upwards of 4,000 people on the hill.

‘That’s verging on urban... in a Pictish context we have nothing else that compares to this.’