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Note
Date 3 April 2017
Event ID 1108088
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1108088
This fort, which was fully excavated in 1978-9 prior to its destruction by quarrying, occupied a prominent hillock on the coastal plain to the SE of Dunbar. Oval on plan, aerial photography revealed a circuit of three ditches, with a fourth on the W springing from the outermost on the NS and SW, which enclosed an area measuring about 88m from E to W by 70m transversely (0.48ha; c. 0.38ha within the rampart). Excavation showed that there was also earlier phases of settlement, beginning with the construction of a palisaded enclosure at about 640-570 cal BC, which was followed by an unenclosed settlement of massive timber round-houses. The succession of defences was long and complex. The first rampart was constructed about 490-430 cal BC and formed an univallate enclosure with opposed entrances on the E and W. A second rampart and ditch were added subsequently and a monumental timber-lined entrance way was created at the W entrance. About 395-375 cal BC this entrance was blocked and a new entrance built on the SW, and the defences were elaborated in a series of stages, part of the circuit displaying three lines of ramparts and ditches. These went out of use 295-235 cal BC and settlement expanded over the redundant defences, contracting again 235-210 cal BC. The final phase of occupation began about 100-60 BC, comprising a series of stone and timber round-houses, and was abandoned AD 155-210. Analysis immediately after the completion of the excavation has been superseded by a programme of post excavation work in the University of Bradford and a comprehensive dating programme based on 158 c14 dates from long stratigraphic chains. Unusually for Scottish forts and settlements, the calcareous soils had not only preserved an extensive faunal assemblage, but also a wide range of bone tools and artefacts, as well as pottery, copper alloy objects and evidence of iron working; objects from the latest phase included items of Roman manufacture. Later activity in the fort prior to its reduction by post-medieval ploughing was limited to a single inhumation dating from the late Roman Iron Age.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 03 April 2017. Atlas of Hillforts - SC0485
