Field Visit
Date September 1988
Event ID 1082641
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1082641
This glacial mound rises some 6m above the general level of the gravel terrace on the SE bank of the River Fyne, 400m N of Achadunan farmhouse which probably takes its name from the fortification (en.1*). It is separated from the neighbouring haugh-lands by an impressive 10m-wide ditch which follows a semicircular course around its base. The mound itself is of narrow linear form extending over 28mfrom N to S, but much of the summit is as little as 1.5m to 2min width. Traces of walling, probably the remains of a later field-dyke, run along the line of the ridge. The existing summit-area is clearly insufficient to have served as a defensive platform, but whether or by how much the W flank of the mound may have been eroded by the river is difficult to ascertain without excavation. On the basis of the surviving surface-remains it is therefore difficult to determine whether the earthwork should be classified as a motte, though the landward ditch, which at the N carries a small tributary burn, appears to be an artificial work of medieval character.
RCAHMS 1992, visited September 1988
