It was a beautiful day when I set off today from Dundee, but as I headed north and west around the suburbs – Ardler, Downfield, Fintry and Whitfield – the cloud started to come down a wee bit. It was still warm and bright though as I turned off at Pitkerro and past Drumsturdy and the Laws fort and broch.
I was on my way to the souterrain at Ardestie, a place I’d been meaning to visit since moving back to Dundee in April. As I got close, I noticed that the path to it had been moved due to the roadworks going on on the Arbroath road, and it is now approached from the east rather than the south. The grass had obviously been recently-cut, and the souterrain was looking magnificent.





This is a very well-presented site – it sits in a fenced-off section of a crop field, with plenty of room to walk around it. The roof has been removed, so you can walk through the main chamber, and also easily see the layout of the site, including what might be a basin of some description, possibly something to do with shellfish.


As with many other souterrains, this one sits just off the top of a ridge, from where there are great views down to the River Tay. On first thoughts it suggests that the souterrain was meant to be hidden behind the ridge, but when you consider that there were associated buildings above ground, this is unlikely.


After a good potter about, I got back on my bike and cycled down to the main road. A much-needed road-widening scheme had ironically made the road narrower temporarily, and I had a somewhat hair-raising ride back down to Dundee as the Sunday tea-time traffic returned from days out at Arbroath.