Excavation

Date 13 June 2015 - 10 July 2015

Event ID 1025992

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1025992

NO 02300 14300 (Canmore ID: 26688, SMR: 9434) Three trenches were excavated at Dun Knock, a multi-ditched hilltop enclosure first identified as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The 13 June – 10 July 2015 investigations were designed to build on previous work in 2008 (SERF) and 2009 (GUARD).

The results showed that the hill went through various phases of enclosure and remodelling, which began as early as the Neolithic. The main trench, Trench E, stretched across the projected line of the five cropmark ditches. Of the five ditches noted on the aerial photographs, only four were identified

within the trench and of these only two have produced datable material. One ditch contained sherds of Neolithic pottery and a complete upturned bowl at its terminal. The second innermost ditch appeared to be recut and contained metalworking debris, including a crucible, dumped along its inner edge. Below this ditch a broad terrace was cut into the slope and surfaced with a series of pebble and cobble layers, built one on top of another. It has been presumed

that this terrace removed an earlier ditch and rampart. In a further, later, phase, a low roughly-built curvilinear stone wall was constructed above hillwash that had covered the cobble surfaces. The innermost ditch was narrow,

occupation on the site prior to the construction of this rampart.

Archive and report: National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE)

Funder: Historic Scotland

Website: www.glasgow.ac.uk/serf

Tessa Poller and Cathy MacIver – University of Glasgow

(Source: DES, Volume 16)