Archaeology Notes

Event ID 729505

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/729505

NX87SW 3 8385 7164.

(NX 8385 7164) Earthwork (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

The earthwork (C M Piggott 1955) on Green Island, noted by the RCAHMS as a fort, consists of a narrow boat-shaped area 246' by 73', enclosed by a 3' high rampart and a shallow external ditch 10'-12' wide. There is a short berm between the rampart and ditch. The rampart has almost disappeared in the E. The 8' wide entrance is in the W; it is approached by a roadway carried over the ditch on unexcavated ground. The rampart on either side of the entrance is more massive than elsewhere, and the ditch has squared angles to N and S of it. A narrow gap in the rampart in the N is probably secondary. In the extreme NW angle of the ditch, adjacent to the entrance is a water-hole, while in the interior opposite the entrance is a small oblong depression, possibly a well.

Piggott considers that the work is 'almost certainly of Dark Age or medieval date', while Truckell states it 'seems a definitely Viking type of site.'

RCAHMS 1914, visited 1912; C M Piggott 1955; A E Truckell 1963

An earthwork generally as described. The date and purpose of this work cannot be determined but its situation and construction are not typical of a fort. Mr Truckell, of Dumfries Museum, now believes it to be Medieval.

Resurveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (BS) 6 November 1973.