Archaeology Notes

Event ID 698818

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/698818

NS24NE 13 2534 4510.

(NS 2534 4510) Knockrivoch Mount (NAT) Motte (NR)

OS 6" map (1970)

Knochrivoch Mount, a motte (information from K A Steer, RCAHMS, letter, 16 April 1954) is wholly composed of earth; in 1856 it stood 12ft high, its level top measuring about 53ft by 30ft. Smith notes that a small part of it has been removed.

Name Book 1856; J Smith 1895

Knockrivoch Mount is a motte, situated on the summit of a low ridge with a commanding view in all directions. It measures overall 30.0m E-W by 21.0m transversely, its top measuring 9.5m by 6.0m. There is the suggestion of a berm, some 5.0m wide, round the base of the mound, but no definite indication of a ditch. Its earthen construction is exposed where the grass has been removed. There is no trace of a bailey. (RCAHMS Marginal Lands TS)

Revised at 25".

Visited by OS (DS) 14 September 1956 and (WDJ) 24 November 1965

Failing any historical evidence to the contrary, the possibility of this totally artifical and remotely placed mound being a motte is untenable. Generally as described, its oval shape (approximately 30 by 24m and 3.3m high) would seem to be the result of truncation on its N side (note Smith), and it was possibly once circular and some 30m in diameter. The slight berm, most evident on the S and W, is sigificant and could represent either a general levelling of the area prior to construction or a scrape zone for the mound material.

This may be a tumulus; its form and location bears comparison with Court Hill, Dalry (NS24NE 3).

Visited by OS (JRL) 27 October 1982