Archaeology Notes
Event ID 704841
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/704841
NS57NW 2 5495 7738
(NS 5495 7738) Moot Hill (NAT)
OS 6" map, Stirlingshire, 2nd ed., (1923)
Between the Castle of Mugdock and Craigend is a round knoll which is called the Moot Hill or place of judgement. From this spot the accused if found guilty were taken to the Gallow Hill (NS57NW 11) where if men they were strangled on the gallows or if women were drowned in the little sheet of water which lay at the foot of the gibbet.
J G Smith 1886.
An oval mound measuring 33.0m. by 26.0m. and approximately 2.0m high, now much overgrown and pitted by rabbit burrows.
Visited by OS (W M J) 27 July 1951
The "Moot Hill" is covered with dense evergreen vegetation, rendering survey impossible.
Visited by OS (R D) 19 August 1966.
NS 5495 7738 The Moot Hill lies between Mugdock Castle and Craigend House, and is recorded as a moot hill or place of judgement.
Scrub woodland covering the 33 x 26m flat-topped oval mound was removed in September 2003 to allow a detailed topographic survey to be made. Three trenches were laid out NE-SW, to investigate the edges of the mound and the centre, and one was located at the S edge of the mound.
In all cases, a shallow deposit of turf and topsoil was removed to reveal the natural bedrock. There were some suggestions that surface irregularities on the summit had been levelled off, but there were no artefacts to support this observation. Nor were there other traces of human activity, such as charcoal.
In the SW trench the rock fell away quickly into deep peat deposits. A drystone revetment ran alongside the edge of the mound, which had been interpreted as a landing place or quay. Excavation and survey revealed that this was a stock-proof dyke, probably of 19th-century date.
The only finds were 19th or 20th century in date, and seem to be the refuse of shooting parties.
Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.
Sponsor: University of Glasgow.
S T Driscoll 2003.
