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Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016656
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016656
For many years this site was thought to be a 'cashel' (here used to described an Irish form of Early Christian monastery) and, despite excavation in 1909 by J A Balfour, this interpretation was accepted until comparatively recently. A re-analysis of the field remains, however, suggests that Balfour was mistaken, but there is still no general agreement as to the precise nature of the site.
The remains comprise a large enclosure of a little under one hectare which is surrounded by an earthand-stone bank, and attached to its north side there is a smaller circular structure. Balfour interpreted the larger enclosure bank as the 'vallum' of the monastery, and the circular structure as the meeting hall of the monks; he also noted three 'monks cells' outside the enclosure to the west. We can now be fairly certain that the 'vallum' is a comparatively recent field-bank with the rig-and-furrow strips it enclosed still visible, and that the three monk's cells to the west are the sites of prehistoric timber houses. The interpretation of the smaller circular structure remains in doubt; it is not monastic in origin, but there is not clear evidence of its function. One suggestion is that it is an Iron Age dun,and its hilltop position would favour this, but the discovery during the 1909 excavations of a cist and Food Vessel in the wall, might point to a much earlier date and quite different function. Its position would be in keeping with it being a chambered tomb or Bronze Age cairn, and the large slabs still visible in the interior, taken together with the so-called entrance-passage, might suggest that it could easily be a chambered cairn reused in the bronze age. Only excavation can solve the problem and it remains an interesting example of the changing nature and development of archaeological interpretation.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
