Archaeology Notes
Event ID 703356
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/703356
NS48NE 3 4724 8712.
(NS 4724 8712) Catter Law (NR)
OS 6" map, Dunbartonshire, 2nd ed., (1922)
Catter Moot Hill. 'A large artificial mound of earth where justice was administered in former times and whereon stood in Earl's gallows.'
G Chalmers 1890; J Irving 1879.
The mound known as Catter Law which stands within the grounds of Catter House, 300 yards S of Drymen Bridge, is a motte. Fashioned out of a natural hillock, it ranges in height from 9 feet on the S to 26 feet on the N, and the level top measures 120 feet from E to W by 100 feet transversely. The top is planted with trees and shrubs and exhibits no structural remains apart from a large modern pit situated in the NE quadrant. Some slight traces of a ditch up to 30 feet in width can be seen round the base of the mound on all sides except trhe E where its place is taken by a natural gully, now used as a rubbish dump.
Visited by RCAHMS, 19 May 1955
Catter Law is a steep-sided, flat-topped sub-circular mound, measuring c.40.0m in diameter, 3.0m high on the south and c.5.0m on the north, built upon the hill slope above the Endrick Water. On the east are the remains of a ditch, c.12.0m long by 6.0m wide and c.2.0m deep, which has largely been filled with compost.
The mound is grass and tree covered, and an earthen construction is exposed where turf has been removed. It has every appearance of being a motte; there are no traces of a bailey.
Visited by OS (D S) 1 October 1956.
Motte, Catter-Law. Worthy of preservation.
RCAHMS 1957.
Catter Law is as described by the previous OS field investigator, but no trace of an earthen construction could be seen. The eastern periphery had been mutilated, where a garden refuse tip had been constructed. On the top of the mound,at the very edge of the slopes and located at NS 4722 8711, there is a stone 0.8m x 0.7m x 0.4m high (obviously not in situ) in the centre of which is a deep cupmark measuring 0.3m in diameter by 0.15m deep.
Revised at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (R B) 30 March 1965.
