Archaeology Notes

Event ID 704006

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/704006

NS68NW 6 6117 8665.

Motte, Fintry. This motte is situated on the S side of the valley of the Endrick Water and 150ft above the W end of Fintry village. It occupies the crest of a slight ridge from which the ground falls steeply to the valley floor on the NE, while in the opposite direction, to the SW, a slight hollow separates the site from a steep slope which rises 600ft to the summit of Turf Hill.

The motte (Fig. 66 and Pl. 52) consists of an oval mound which is enclosed by a broad ditch. At the present time much of the surface of the mound is covered with bracken, while the N part and most of the ditch are planted with trees. Except on the W, where it is only 9ft 6in high, the mound stands about 16ft above the present bottom of the ditch; its top is level and measures 120ft in maximum length by 100ft in breadth. A stretch of the ditch has been destroyed by erosion on the N side, but elsewhere it is still up to 40ft in width and 5ft in depth.

In early mediaeval times Fintry lay within the earldom of Lennox, and it is therefore possible that this motte was the residence from which Maldouen, 3rd Earl of Lennox, gave two charters about the middle of the 13th century.

RCAHMS 1963

NS 6117 8665. The motte at Fintry is as described above with the exception that the level top measures 38.0m E-W by 23.0m transversely. The level summit is tree and grass covered but a number of stones are visible in the sides.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 4 March 1965