Archaeology Notes

Event ID 727123

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/727123

NX85SW 2 8450 5403

(NX 8450 5403) Mark Mote (NR).

OS 6" map (1957)

This fort, occupying the summit of a small rocky knoll and now in a very denuded state, is formed by a vitrified timber-laced rampart encircling the summit area, 270 ft. NW to SE x 55 to 105 ft. transversely.

Along the flanks of the knoll, especially on the more accessible north side, lie masses of boulders, the ruins of the wall which encircled the summit.

On the north flank, where there was a comparatively easy approach by an oblique track from the east, the material was probably sufficient for two walls. Elsewhere little trace of the wall survives.

During excavation in 1913 two drystone huts were found and finds included over 100 late Larnian flints (dismissed by Curle in 1913-14 as probable strike-a-lights as they were found in the upper levels of the excavations, although he accepted they could be re-used prehistoric flints, a small piece of Samian ware and a piece of a mortarium; fragments of clay moulds for casting penannular brooches and ornaments of the Early Christian period, and pieces of glass of Mediterranean origin indicating a 9th c date.

A O Curle 1914; A E Truckell 1963; R W Feachem 1963

The Mote of Mark (National Trust for Scotland Name Board) is generally as described above although a second rampart now in the form of a terrace can be traced midway down the slope on the N and W sides. No trace of the huts survives.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 16 December 1969

Classification of Roman material. Hitherto unpublished Roman glass from the site is now in NMAS.

A S Robertson 1970

Bobble-headed pin.

L Laing and J Laing 1986

NX 845 539 A watching brief was undertaken on 30 August 2006 on the ground works associated with the installation of a cattle grid on the track leading to Ashlands and the Mote, Rockcliffe. The excavations were at the foot of a rocky knoll surmounted by the remains of a 6th- to 7th-century AD fort known as the Mote of Mark, a scheduled ancient monument in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. No archaeologically significant deposits or finds were encountered in the course of the work.

Sponsor: Mr Smith Syme.

M Brann 2006.

Mote of Mark

Fort [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, July 2009.