Note

Date 8 December 2014 - 25 October 2016

Event ID 1044471

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044471

Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland

This early medieval fortification occupies the rocky hill rising out of the floor of Strath Earn on the S side of the river some 1.5km downstream from its debouchment from Loch Earn. The principle components of the fortifications are: a dun-like enclosure occupying the very summit of the hill; a wall following the line of the shoulder on the E, S and W to form a roughly triangular enclosure on the uppermost terrace of the hill; and a series of walls taking in lower terraces, including one on the SW and at least two on the N, with possibly a fourth on the NE. In addition a deeply hollowed trackway climbs the flank of the hill on the NW, where an earthwork comprising a bank and external ditch mounts the slope to cross over several terraces on the W, but also a flight of cultivation terraces; while the trackway may well be associated with the fortifications, there is no evidence to indicate that the rest of these features are associated with the early medieval occupation on the summit, though the earthwork is a substantial feature and has been shown by excavation to have been built in two phases. The dun-like enclosure on the summit measures no more than 25m from E to W by 20m transversely (0.04ha) within a grass-grown band of rubble. The triangular enclosure on the uppermost terrace takes in a much bigger area measuring a maximum of 85m from E to W by 50m transversely (0.4ha), while the walls taking in the lower terraces extend the overall area that has been enclosed to at least 2ha, albeit that large areas of this are steep and inhospitable slopes. No facing stones can be observed in the debris from these walls, but in each case they have collapsed into a massive scree of rubble, itself an indication of their original scale. The lowest of these enclosures on the NE flank of the hill is too far removed topographically from the core of the fortification to be included in the calculation of its overall extent, which also omits the earthwork on the NW. The hollow way on the NW leads up towards a gap in the wall at the NW of the lower terrace on the N flank, but there is no clearly-defined route to the summit; the excavators suggested there may once have been a built stairway on the S flank of the summit enclosure.

Excavations by Leslie Alcock in 1976-7 (Alcock, Alcock and Driscoll 1989) evaluated the perimeters of the dun-like enclosure on the summit and the uppermost terrace enclosure, radiocarbon dates and artefacts demonstrating unequivocally that the upper fortifications are early medieval in date. The sequence of construction postulated by Alcock was initiated by a hypothetical palisade in the late 6th-early 7th century, inferred from the build up of midden deposits on the slope and the presence of structural timbers recovered from an overlying wattle floor. Thereafter, a timber and stone wall was built as the first phase in the erection of the dun-like enclosure in the 7th-9th centuries; notable features in this wall, which had been burnt, were that the outer face was apparently founded on horizontal timbers set in rock-cut grooves and ledges, and that nails had been used to pin together some of the lesser wooden members. Subsequently this wall was rebuilt, and though possible beam channels were identified in the rubble core, no nails were employed. Thought to be contemporary with this reconstruction, a massive wall up to 8m thick, and originally with an external face at least 4m high, was erected around the lip of the uppermost terrace; in a subsequent phase this wall was reinforced. It is assumed that the enclosure of the lower terraces is also associated with the stone fortification of the uppermost terrace. With the exception of a natural basin known as St Fillan's Well on the W of the uppermost terrace, the interior is featureless; the basin was sectioned during the excavations, and while it collects rain water, there is no evidence for its use in antiquity.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 25 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2625