Note
Date 6 November 2015 - 8 September 2016
Event ID 1045665
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045665
The appearance of Din Eidyn in the poem The Gododdin, and the documented siege of Din Etin about AD 638, have been interpreted as evidence of an early medieval fortress on the Castle Rock beneath Edinburgh Castle (summarised by Alcock 1981, 165-6), an identification to some extent confirmed by the discovery of early medieval midden deposits in excavations carried out 1988-91 (Driscoll and Yeoman 1997), albeit that no defences of this date have been uncovered. With such major construction works in the erection of the later castle defences, this is perhaps no more than can be expected, and, in view of its topographical setting, girt with cliffs and easily accessible only from the Esplanade on the E, there is every reason to include the Castle Rock in the Hillfort Atlas. The topography of the summit area, with the true summit forming a boss dominating the approach from the E along the edge of the NE cliffs, determines the maximum overall extent of the fort, roughly coincident with the castle and covering an area measuring some 230m from ESE to WNW by 140m (2.4ha). By the same token, the discovery in the excavations to the NW of the summit boss of middens apparently spanning the Roman Iron Age and early medieval period with no discernible hiatus, and beneath them elements of three round-houses and extensive paved surfaces, has been interpreted by the excavators as evidence of an earlier fort on the site. The chronology of these accumulated deposits, however, is not particularly clear, the contexts of the seven radiocarbon dates obtained, spanning from the 2nd century BC to the 7th century AD, possibly suggesting the deposits may have been much more mixed than the various analyses suggest. Numerous Roman items found in the middens, with up to 50 vessels represented, are overwhelmingly dated to the 1st or 2nd centuries, with only two sherds of fine wares that are probably later, and a sherd of glass probably of 4th century date. As such, the majority of the evidence here reflects patterns seen more widely across the Border Counties and Northumberland, where late Iron Age or Early Roman Iron Age settlements overlie the defences of earlier forts, albeit that no defences are known here. Even more tenuous would be the assertion that the summit was also enclosed in the Late Bronze Age on the grounds of the pits, hearths and cobbled surfaces found at the bottom of the sequence, though a very similar pattern of Late Bronze Age and late Iron Age / Roman Iron Age occupation has been established at the large hilltop enclosure on Traprain Law in East Lothian.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 08 September 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3713
