Undiscovered Scotland

 

Tealing Souterrain can be found in farmland next to the village of Tealing, which is accessed from the A90 just under four miles north of Dundee. Parking is available next to the Tealing Doocot, and from there it is little more than a hundred yards to the souterrain, first along a signposted drive before turning right through an easy-to-miss gate.

Tealing Souterrain is a curved stone lined passage with a constricted entrance at one end and a chamber at the other. It would originally have been covered by roof slabs with earth piled on top and as a result would have been invisible, except for the entrance. This particular souterrain measures 24.3m in length by 2.3m in average width. The surviving stone side walls are up to 2m high.

The souterrain was only discovered when a farmer accidentally caused part of the roof to collapse in 1871. Subsequent excavation unearthed a range of domestic items such as animal bones, pottery and quern stones. Some of the pottery fragments were Roman in origin.

Souterrains or earth houses were storage cellars and this one was probably excavated next to a timber framed round house. The cool and dry conditions in the souterrain would have made it ideal for the storage of grain and other foodstuffs. Like many others in north-east Scotland, the Tealing Souterrain was probably excavated some time in the 50 years either side of AD100.

It has been speculated that farmers across many of the more fertile parts of Scotland enjoyed lucrative contracts to supply the Roman army during its incursions into the country. Grain would be stored in the earth houses pending collection by the Romans or their agents. This makes sense of the period in which most souterrains seem to have been in use, and it also ties in nicely with the discovery of pieces of Roman pottery when this one was excavated.