Excavation

Date June 1965

Event ID 1111131

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1111131

Wallstale, Polmale Dun.

The dun, circular in plan, has an internal diameter of c. 45ft. and a stone wall c. 11ft, thick, some internal facing blocks of which are visible on the surface. It is situated 160 yards N. of Wallstale Farm at a height of just over 400ft. O.D.

Excavation was begun in June 1965. A trench was cut across the line of the dun wall and into the interior. This disclosed that the wall, circ. 11ft, wide, was composed of an inner and outer face of large blocks, set on the natural rock, with a filling of pitched stones. A space of 2ft. 3in. separated the inner face of the wall from a stone kerb, beyond which lay an area of flat stone flags. These rested on knobs of natural rock with an occasional dressed stone laid in between the points of rock to help level up the slabs. Towards the central axis of the site, in line with the presumed entrance on the SE. sector of the dun, was an area of paving slabs—-very neatly laid and fitted—lying against an edge of rock outcrop. Finds included a fragment each of both rotary and saddle type quern-stones, a piece of slag and a stone with a groove on it possibly for sharpening needles?

James K Thompson, Stirling Field and Archaeological Society

(DES 1965, 38-9)