Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017313
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017313
The modern traveller, fighting for breath and warmth in a gale on the headland ofBurghead, may find it difficult to believe that he is standing in one of the most magnificent centres of Pictish power. Such was the destruction caused by the building of the present village in 1805-9, that the visitor must recreate in his mind the three great lines of rampart, with timber reinforcing, that stood 6m high and ran across the neck of the promontory from Young Street to Bath Street.
In 1809 the rampart that (most characteristically for a Dark Age site) formed the seaward defences was observed to consist of ' ... the most various materials, viz, masses of stone with lime, cement, pieces of pottery and baked bricks and tiles, half burnt beams of wood, broken cornices and mouldings of well-cut freestone .... On some pieces of the freestone are seen remains of mouldings and carved fIgures, particularly of a bull, very well executed .... [These were] the ruins ... of a considerable town'. The 'bull, very well executed' is a reference to the famous Pictish animal carvings from Burghead, of which six survive,* although between 25 and 30 are recorded in the literature.
A small stump of the innermost cross rampart survives in the 'Doorie Hill', the green mound on which sits the blackened mounting for the Clavie (the midwinter fIre-festival). The upper and lower wards of the fort also survive, the rampart of the latter being the best preserved (it is from this wall that evidence for nailing of the timber beams in the wall comes). In all, nearly 3 ha were enclosed, making Burghead one of the largest forts of any date in Scotland. The possibility that the boats of the Pictish 'navy' that carried the men of Moray in battle to Orkney sheltered beneath the headland cannot be ignored.
The Well is an elaborate subterranean rock-cut basin, with walkway around; it was damaged on discovery. Although described in the past as a 'Roman' well or an early Christian baptistry, its location in an elaborate Pictish fort suggests that its unusual construction is merely a reflection of the overall level of grandeur required by the inhabitants for their water supply. Alternatively, it could have functioned as a water shrine, ultimately of Celtic inspiration.
*Two are in Burghead Library, two are in Elgin Museum and the Royal Museum of Scotland and the British Museum have one each.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Grampian’, (1986).
