Stone Sites and Landscape Features for Archaeological Viewshed Analysis in Glengorm, Mull

The Glengorm area on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, contains a dataset of stone sites and landscape features used in a prehistoric ritual monument study from the 1980s and 1990s. This dataset was created by the University of Edinburgh for a GIS-based viewshed analysis examining monument visibility. It incorporates multiple data layers including soils, coastlines, drainage, land capability, rivers, elevation, slope, and the distribution of cairns, cists, duns, forts, and stone sites.

Use Cases

• Conducting viewshed analysis based on elevation and slope data to assess intervisibility between prehistoric sites.
• Modeling the relationship between monument locations and environmental features like soil drainage capacity and land capability.
• Analyzing spatial distribution patterns of different monument types (cairn, cist, dun, fort) across the landscape.
• Integrating multiple geospatial layers (coast, lochs, rivers) for holistic archaeological landscape studies.

Strengths

• Dataset is part of a defined archaeological study conducted over two decades (1980s and 1990s).
• Incorporates multiple thematic data layers (soils, drainage, elevation, monuments) for integrated analysis.
• Associated with a specific GIS application for viewshed analysis, suggesting a structured methodological approach.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal and methodological bias inherent to the original 1980s-1990s study.

Provenance

Source

University of Edinburgh

Collection Method

Part of an archaeological study applying GIS for viewshed analysis.

Time Range

Study conducted in the 1980s and 1990s.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:20.585358; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Glengorm area on the Isle of Mull, Scotland.