Archaeology Notes

Event ID 701001

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/701001

NS33SE 3 3558 3364.

(NS 3558 3364) Dun (NR)

OS 6" map (1967)

The remains of a dun on Kemp Law are overgrown and much robbed and ruined. The main enclosure is almost circular, measuring about 36ft in diameter within the ruin of a wall 14ft thick. At one point this was found to be vitrified for half its thickness, inwards from the inner face. A second wall can be traced round the dun about 10ft away, but until the site is cleared the details of these are other possible features will remain masked. A shale pin head, 1 1/2ins. in diameter, comparable with one from Traprain Law, was picked up on the surface in 1963, some 10 yds S of the dun.

R W Feachem 1963; D Christison 1893; J L Kay 1963; J Smith 1895

This probable dun has been considerably mutilated and is heavily overgrown. It measures about 20m in diameter over a ruinous wall 1.5m high on the W, and about 0.7m elsewhere. There is a stony mound (possible wall-robbing) near the centre and some of the stones best evidence of vitrification.

Visited by OS (JLD) 29 May 1954

The remains of this overgrown dun, generally as described, are situated in a naturally defensive position at the E end of a narrow spur, at about 90m OD.

The only coherent feature amongst a turf-covered mass of stone debris, some 2.0m high, is a 5m arc of outer facing blocks around the N side. The walling stands up to 1.2m high (about 3 courses) and suggests the original plan was circular and approximately 12m in diameter. A wall thickness cannot be determined, nor can the form and dimensions of the outer wall be assessed.

The quantity of exposed vitrified material is substantial. A rough cutting into the S face of the central mass has exposed a solid band of fused stone beneath an earth capping, and nearby a loose block of vitrified stone measures some 0.5 by 0.4m (cf NS21SE 8).

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (JRL) 10 May 1982