Archaeology Notes

Event ID 690810

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/690810

NO56NE 9.00 5835 6876

(NO 5837 6876) Castle Hillock (NR).

OS 6" map, (1959).

(NO 5834 6873) Moat (NR).

(NO 5835 6881) The Pit (NR). (Site of).

OS 25" map, (1928).

NO56NE 9.01 NO 583 687 Trial Excavations

A motte of elongated trapezoidal form, whose longer axis lies WNW - ESE and whose summit area measures about 125' long by 52' across its eastern or broader end.

Round the motte are distinct traces of an entrenched bailey measuring about 300' in length and 200' in greatest breadth. On the north this bailey finds a natural boundary in a deep ravine, but on the east and south the boundary is formed by a ditch, now almost filled up, but apparently about 30' in average breadth. No trace of foundations of any kind appears either on the motte or within the area of the bailey, but vaulted chambers are said to have been removed in the late 18th century. According to Simpson the site was not abandoned until the 16th century tower of Edzell Castle (NO56NE 8) was built. The site of 'The Pit' as pointed out by the keeper of Edzell Castle c 1860 'is in a very wet place in the Moat...and is partly enclosed by a paling...but is barely traceable and except that the place is more marshy than the rest, there is nothing remarkable about it.' (Name Book c 1860). According to Jervise this was 'the fatal pit of the ancient lords' but it does not apppear to fit Mackie's definition of the 'pit' as being a private prison for minor offenders. NSA mentions 'a small lake which was employed when drowning was the order of the day.' This description seems to fit the site more easily.

NSA 1845; A Jervise 1853; O S Name Book; W D Simpson 1931; W D Simpson 1952.

The motte, c 4.0m high, is natural but has probably been artificially levelled. The ravine on the north is an old course of the West Water, still marshy. The moat is only faintly traceable on the south side as a shallow depression in pasture - c 10.0m wide and c 0.6m deep. It has been entirely obliterated on the west and partially on the east./The bailey takes the form of a low terrace. There is no trace of 'The Pit'.

Visited by OS (JLD) 14 July 1958.

Castle Hillock - a ploughed down motte and bailey scarped from a natural knoll, generally as described by Simpson and OS Field Surveyor (JLD). The ditch is still traceable in the S but it is mostly obliterated in the E by a farm track and totally destroyed in the W. In the SW for about 40.0m there is a counter-scarp to the inner edge of the ditch, which may be original, indicating that there were two ditches with an intermediary bank for at least part of the periphery. At the E end of the motte a terrace has been set into the slope which is probably a salient protecting the SE approach and probably of secondary construction.

Resurveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (ISS) 18 August 1971.