Field Visit
Date 5 May 1989
Event ID 1103291
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1103291
This fort occupies the summit and lower slopes of a craggy, steep-sided hill commanding extensive views in all directions except to the NE, where it is overlooked by Black Hill. It consists of a strongly defended inner enclosure, displaying evidence of successive reconstructions, and an outer enclosure. The earliest phase of the defences probably comprised a timber-laced wall on the summit; this was subsequently burnt and the resulting vitrified debris was incorporated into the wall of the outer enclosure. It is unclear whether the outer enclosure was accompanied by the refortification of the summit, but at some stage the timber-laced work was replaced by a wall and two outer ramparts.
The inner work has been much disturbed as a result of excavation by Playfair about 1799 (Robertson 1799; Playfair 1819) and by Nairne in 1854 (Wise 1859). The fort has been identified with Dunsion, mentioned in the Pictish Regnal Lists, but the attribution is uncertain (Alcock 1981).
Roughly oval on plan, the inner work measures 52m by 25m within a wall about 9m in thickness and 0.5m in height. Several outer facing-stones have been revealed as a result of Nairne's trenching along the line of the wall, and his excavation also demonstrated that vitrified material from the earlier timber-laced work had been incorporated in the later wall. The entrance through the inner work, which lies on the NE, is approached up a winding path that commences at the top of the steep lower slope on the SE flank of the hill and passes obliquely through the outer lines of defence. The interior of the fort has been confused by the unbackfilled excavation trenches and spoil-heaps. Sketches by Skene (1832) and Stewart (1854) show (in Christison 1900, 88, fig. 42) that Playfair drove a trench from the entrance through the centre of the fort and dug a number of pits on the line of the inner rampart. Nairne (Wise 1859) concentrated his efforts on trenching the E part of the interior, where he claimed to have found the base of a 'tower' and a two-chambered structure (possibly parts of a souterrain). Further protection was provided by two outer ramparts which, apart from a short gap on the NE, above a cliff, enclose the summit of the hill; they are now much reduced, particularly on the N and W.
The outer enclosure takes in a number of terraces on the lower slopes of the hill below the outer ramparts on the S. It was defended by a wall, now reduced to a stony bank measuring 2.5m in thickness by up to 0.3m in height which contains small fragments of vitrified stone, probably derived from the summit wall. There are three entrances; those on the NW and E are approached along trackways that climb obliquely up the slopes, while the third entrance (on the SW) is boulder-lined, and its extension towards the inner work is blocked by the lower of the inner ramparts. Situated on the broad S terrace, there are a number of crescentic quarry-scoops; on the SE there is a house platform (A on plan) and, 35m to the SW, a hut-circle appears to overlie the line of the enclosure wall.
Finds (now lost) from the excavations included a bronze spiral finger-ring (Brown 1873), a quern, animal bones and midden material, and, from the two-compartment chamber, the skeletal remains of two adults and a child.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 5 May 1989.
T Brown 1873; D Christison 1900; L Alcock 1981; T A Wise 1859; J Playfair 1819; J Robertson 1799.
