Excavation
Date August 2017 - September 2017
Event ID 1038375
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1038375
NJ 4729 2605 Wheedlemont is a small oval enclosure classified as a fort located a few miles SW of the village of Rhynie. Very little is known of such small enclosed sites in the region, including how they may relate to other
settlements from the Iron Age or early medieval periods.
Investigations at Wheedlemont have been restricted to visits and basic descriptions of the site from the late 19th century and 1930s, as well as a survey in 1956 and descriptive account in 1986 by RCAHMS. This has resulted in the identification of the site as a small fort with two ramparts, or banks, with a ditch in between, a possible entrance to the E, but no visible internal structures. A recent LiDAR survey also seems to point towards the absence of internal structures. The site was scheduled in 2007. A two week evaluation, during late August and early September 2017, was carried out to provide basic chronology and characterisation of the inner and outer ramparts/banks, the ditch and entrance way, as well as testing the presence of internal structures and features, as part of the Leverhulme funded Comparative Kingship project.
Three trenches were laid out. Trench 1 was laid over the inner rampart/bank, ditch and outer rampart/bank on the W side of the hillfort. Internal to the ditch, a stone-built wall, c1m wide consisting of a single course of stones and a possible shallow foundation trench, was identified
along with a counterscarp bank on the outside of the ditch. An earlier wall, probably made of stone and turf, possibly flanked by posts, was also identified and located approximately in the same location. The ditch itself was c2.5m wide and c0.5m deep. Trench 2 was located on a possible platform in the western part of the enclosed area. No interior structures were identified but putative cut features as well as charcoal rich deposits, possibly representing a floor and hearth, were uncovered. Trench 3 was located in the area believed to be the entrance to the fort, on its E side, where there is a break in the enclosure. The northern ditch terminal was identified and was c2m wide and c0.75m deep but there was no structural evidence of an entrance. No finds were recovered from the excavation
trenches. Radiocarbon dating will clarify the chronology of the two ramparts, the enclosing ditch and possible internal features in Trench 2.
Archive: University of Aberdeen
Funder: University of Aberdeen and Leverhulme Trust
Gordon Noble and Edouard Masson-Maclean – University of Aberdeen
(Source: DES, Volume 18)
