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Note
Date 20 December 2013 - 13 December 2016
Event ID 1045405
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045405
What may be the largest Iron Age enclosure in Scotland is situated on the Mull of Galloway, a large promontory some 1.7km long which forms the southernmost tip of the Rhinns of Galloway. Girt with steep slopes and cliffs, the crest of the promontory rises gently eastwards from a narrow isthmus about 20m above the shore into a low ridge at about 50m OD, descending into a shallow saddle before climbing more steeply to the broad summit of the Mull itself, where a Bronze Age cairn stands at a height of about 75m OD. Two lines of boundary works can be seen at the isthmus, each of rather different character. The first lies on the NW side of the isthmus and comprises a substantial bank some 130m long and up to 4m high, which picks up the line of the coastal escarpment flanking the landward side to block access at its narrowest point. The other adopts a position on the rising ground about 320m to the SE, with its NE end resting on the coastal escarpment overlooking the S side of the bay on the east side of the isthmus (East Tarbet), and its SW end on the cliffs forming the Mull side of a precipitous gully that cuts back into the promontory from the sea. Comprising three ditches with medial banks, it measures about 410m in length and its topographic position is clearly designed to cut off an area of at least 54ha extending eastwards to the Mull. Survey of the earthworks in 1984, suggested that there were at least three phases of construction, the most recent of which is a post-medieval turf dyke that caps the inner bank for most of its length and blocks at least two of what may have been three original gaps, dismounting at the SW end to descend to the cliff-edge at a sharp angle; it is unclear whether the line taken by the road exploits an additional entrance. Evaluation trenches cut in 2000 confirmed that the inner of the banks, which measures between 3m and 4m in thickness and stands to a maximum external height of 2.2m, was built in two phases, and also showed that in its primary phase it was associated with a palisade (Strachan 2000); what appear to be packing stones set upright in the crest of the bank were observed in one eroded sector in 2013.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 13 December 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0201
