Between approximately 2500 and 3000 years ago, during a period archaeologists call the Iron Age, people built a roughly circular enclosure just north-west of Gowanburn. The enclosure was surrounded by at least one bank, and may have been used for defence. The enclosure may have contained houses during the Iron Age, but no trace of them exists today. At some time after the end of the Roman period, farmers built four rectangular buildings within the enclosure. Earthworks are all that remain of these buildings, which may have been constructed from turf and wood. The Iron Age defended settlement and later buildings are a Scheduled Monument protected by law.