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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 697852

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/697852

NS05NE 4 05480 58684

(NS 0548 5866) The Dun (NR).

OS 6" map, (1957)

Dun Scalpsie, an Early Iron Age dun (information from F W Feachem, RCAHMS) is oval, measuring 97ft ENE-WSW, along its major axis. Though Hewison (1893) notes a 9ft wide wall on SE, there are now no remains of this, though tumbled rocks extend down the hillside for about 20ft. On the NW, at the entrance, the wall is 14ft 6ins thick, and what appears to be an inner wall 8ft thick and 1ft 6ins high runs parallel to it, 4ft away. This wall starts at a large mound of stones, 3ft high, 20ft x 4ft on the N, then runs W, joining the outer wall about 12ft beyond the entrance. It then continues for another 30ft before petering out. Hewison states that at the outer side of the wall, the doorway is 7ft wide, and 10ft wide on the inner. It is virtually obliterated by tumble and braken. He also notes 2 fosses on the SE slope, but no trace was found in 1959, though they could be obscured by tumble and bracken. A small section was cut in 1959. Artefacts found included a spindle whorl, comb fragment, whetstones, slag, animal teeth and bones. Two occupation levels were found, all the finds coming from the primary layer, except the bones, found in both layers.

J K Hewison 1893; R E MacCallum 1963.

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