Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016582
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016582
The motte at Dinvin is the most striking and best preserved medieval earthwork in southern Scotland. It is built on a massive scale and far surpasses the other mottes to be found nearby. The outer defences consist of two large U-shaped ditches accompanied by external banks, the crests of which are up to 4m above the bottoms of the ditches. At the centre, and making maximum use of the slope of the hill, the oval mound rises to a height of 4m above the bottom of the inner ditch and measures 28m by 19m. Instead of the more usual flying bridge, the motte was entered via a ramp from the east, approached by a causeway which leads somewhat obliquely through the ditches and banks. For such a massively defended site, the internal area is comparatively small and it is disappointing that the motte is not accompanied by any trace of a bailey. For many years the scale of the defences led scholars to believe that the site was of iron-age date, and such a view was reinforced by the very name Dinvin, with the Celtic element dun suggesting a forltified site.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
