Note
Date 30 October 2014 - 11 January 2017
Event ID 1044705
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044705
The fort on the summit of Dunadd is well-known as the major seat of power in the early medieval kingdom of Dalriada, and the remains include an important group of rock-carvings comprising: the incised outline of a boar; a sunken footprint; a rock-cut basin; and an ogam inscription. The remains of the fort itself, the walls of which variously stand to a height of 1m or have been reduced to mere bands of rubble, comprise four main elements: a small enclosure of no more than 0.02ha on the summit; a smaller enclosure taking in the rest of the crest of the ridge to the NE; and enclosure of about 0.05ha on a terrace below the crest on the SE; and a larger outer enclosure taking in a further 0.11ha on this flank and including the remarkable entrance passage that mounts the slope to the interior via a deep cleft in the outcrops between the terminals of the outer wall. In addition bands of rubble that may indicate the lines of other walls can be seen at various points on the W and N, while on the E lines of boulders between the outcrops may indicate the presence of a much larger outer enclosure on this side, though apparently not one bounded by a defensive wall. Excavations have been carried out on three occasions in the 20th century, firstly by David Christison in 1904-5, then by James Hewat Craw in 1929, and lastly by Alan Lane in 1980-81, these last are now fully published with an overall synthesis of the history of occupation and analyses of all the artefacts that have been recovered, which conclusively demonstrate that this was a major royal centre in the early medieval period (Lane and Campbell 2000). Excavations on the small summit enclosure or dun, however, not only revealed two early medieval phases of construction (though the earlier is possibly Roman Iron Age in date), but also rubble that may have been the remains of an earlier wall and possibly to be associated with a single radiocarbon date of 410-200 cal BC; there was also evidence of a slightly later period of occupation in the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. The date of the construction of the inner of the lower enclosures on the SE flank is unknown, but it seems to have been in place in the 6th-7th centuries AD, while the outer enclosure seems to represent an extension of the fort in the 8th-9th centuries AD.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 11 January 2017. Atlas of Hillforts SC2466
