ARCHAEOLOGISTS have unearthed a “mind-blowing” Pictish site believed to be the largest ever discovered.

The settlement, on the Tap O’ Noth hill near Rhynie in Aberdeenshire, is among the most extensive examples of ancient life ever found in Scotland.

Constructed in the fifth to sixth centuries, it encloses an area of about 17 acres. It is estimated it would have held up to 4000 people – a scale which experts thought was not reached in Scotland until the 12th century.

Professor Gordon Noble, who led the University of Aberdeen research, said: “Over the last two years, we have been investigating the lower fort at Tap O’ Noth which is enclosed by a rampart that encircles the lower slopes of the hill. The results of the dating were simply incredible. They show that the huge fort dated to the fifth to sixth century CE and that it was occupied at the same time as the elite complex in the valley at Barflat farm.

“Dating shows that settlement on the hill extended as far back to the third century, but both hut platforms excavated also had fifth to sixth century CE phases.”

Distribution of the buildings at the site suggests they are likely to have been built and occupied at a similar time. Many are positioned alongside trackways or clustered in groups.

Drone surveys showed that in these groups was one notably larger hut, indicating there may have been some form of hierarchical organisation.

Evidence suggests up to 4000 people may have lived in more than 800 huts, as scientists believe each would be occupied by four to five people.

Noble added: “That’s verging on urban in scale and in a Pictish context we have nothing else that compares to this. We will have to try to date more of the hut platforms but potentially we have a huge regional settlement with activity emerging in the late Roman Iron Age and extending to the sixth century.

“It is truly mind-blowing and demonstrates just how much we still have to learn about settlement around the time the early kingdoms of Pictland were being consolidated.”