Note

Date 12 May 2015 - 17 October 2016

Event ID 1044548

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044548

Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland

The fort on Dunsinane Hill, with the popularisation of its historical associations courtesy of Shakespeare's Macbeth, has long caught the antiquarian imagination, possibly appearing on Timothy Pont's map of Lower Angus and Perthshire east of the Tay (1583-96) and named Macbeth's Castle on Stobie's map of The counties of Perth and Clackmannan (1783). The defences comprise two major elements: a small heavily defended enclosure on the very summit of the hill; and a large outer enclosure not only taking in the upper shoulders of the hill but also a lower terrace on the SE flank. The summit enclosure, which is disfigured by the excavations of James Playfair in 1799 and Mr Nairne in 1854, measures about 52m from ESE to WNW by 25m transversely (0.01ha) within a wall that may be as much as 9m in thickness, and Playfair located its face standing up to 1.8m high (Robertson 1799, 570). Two concentric outer ramparts can also be seen, and the entrance is apparently on the NE where a trackway mounts the slope obliquely to expose the lefthand side of the visitor. On the N, however, the outer of these defences also blocks an earlier trackway, which climbs the slope through an original entrance in the larger outer enclosure, not only indicating that the latter is the earlier, but possibly also indicating that the present configuration of the inner defences was imposed on an earlier scheme. Numerous bits of vitrified stone are strewn around the inner defences, but none of it is in situ, and it is unclear whether this material comes from the burning of the visible defences or from the hypothetical earlier fort; three loose pieces were also identified by RCAHMS on the SE rampart of the outer enclosure, which if derived from an earlier timber-laced wall on the summit indicates a yet more complex sequence. The outer enclosure is roughly triangular on plan, measuring internally about 205m from N to S by 160m transversely (2.16ha) and in addition to the entrance mentioned already on the NW, there are others on the SW and SE respectively, both giving access onto the lower terrace on the SE flank. That on the SW, is in the W side just short of the SW corner and has a worn hollow immediately within the interior; the SE entrance has staggered rampart terminals and is approached obliquely up the slope from the N to expose the right side of the visitor. Within the interior on this lower terrace there are traces of at least seven house platforms, while on the S a small hut-circle appears to overlie the rear of the dilapidated rampart. The results of the excavations within the summit fort are incoherent, but seem to have included several sunken chambers with collapsed corbelled roofs that were thought to have stood 1.8m high, while in a connecting passage three skulls and other human bones were found (Wise 1856, 96-7). The only other finds were a rotary quernstone and a bronze spiral finger ring (Brown 1872), both now lost.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 17 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3062