Tillydrone, Mote Hill

The Motte is approximately 30 metres in diameter and stands about 9 metre high. The slope height is approximately 30 degrees except on the north face, which has eroded down a steep scarp. The ground East and West is park lawn with a serpentine pathway. The motte slope was surveyed by two traverses at right angles N to S and W to E plus a 5m top square.

On the Motte itself only two traverses were carried out, plus a small square on the summit. The traverses rose from the level ground at 30 degrees to the horizontal. At each 1.16-m step up the slope (i.e. 1-m horizontally) the readings rose very significantly, from about 400 ohms at the base to 2000 ohms at the 9-m summit. The rise in resistance readings moving west to east matched the rise in height, except at readings 9,10 and 11 where there was a slight inversion of this pattern. The same was noted in the cross traverse, moving from the summit north to south. The square on the summit shows several high resistance blocks that suggest archaeological anomalies. I would suggest that the inversion in the traverses are suggestive of encircling wall or revetment some two to three metres below the summit. (An excavation in Oct 2001 has uncovered what may have been a palisade and boulder revetment as here suggested.)

The 20-m square to the west of the Motte shows two, perhaps three dark areas of high resistance measuring 1 or two metres across. The shape is not distinct, but given that high pass filtering should have removed geological background, then it is likely that these are archaeological sources. There are trees in the vicinity and here again roots may be having an influence. Maps of the area suggest that vegetation in the recent past may have been altered, perhaps from more extensive wooding.

The 40x100-sq metre area east of the Motte shows several areas of potential archaeological interest. At the base of the Motte are two significant high resistance dark marks, which lie along a west to north curve of low resistance that could denote wall and a ditch encircling this side of the Motte. Moving east there are a few dark, high resistance patches, but the area is well treed and the roots may well be having an effect. From about 60 metres east there are some significant anomalies both very high and very low and of a non-natural appearance that suggests archaeological activity. The intensity in this region would suggest that minimal trial trenching should confirm this hypothesis. The white band across the plots is of course the existing 2-3-m wide pathway.

A watching brief was carried out from 15 November 2011- 1 May 2012 on trenches excavated for the City Centre Heating Phase 1 (Aberdeen City Council Planning references P110789, P111251 and change of route P120455). The trench for laying the pipes starts at The Beach Ballroom, Links Road (AB24 5NR), runs SW along Links Road, along Constitution Street, around Constitution Court, along Wales Street, across Park Street, along Frederick Street, north along King Street, Mealmarket Street, West North Street to Mitchell Hall (AB24 5AS) and also SW along Longacre and Queen Street to Grampian Police HQ and Aberdeen City Council Town House (AB10 1BS).

Information from Oasis (camerona1-125584) 24 July 2012

NJ 95273 07178 (Beach Ballroom) – NJ 94325 06603 (West North Street) – NJ 94325 06405 A watching brief was maintained, 17 November 2011 – 1 May 2012, during the excavation of trenches for new heating pipes. The trenches running from The Town House, Broad Street to Aberdeen Leisure Centre, Beach Boulevard were 1.5m wide and 1.2m deep. The foundations of 19th-century tenements were recorded in Broad Street and garden soils in Mealmarket Street.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: Aberdeen Heat and Power

Alison Cameron (Cameron Archaeology) July 2012

Appearances can be deceptive – the motte that never was

Hidden in plain sight in Seaton Park, Aberdeen, Tillydrone Mote is a great example of how difficult it can be to accurately identify archaeological sites – even for those of us who are meant to be experts!

For most of its life, Tillydrone was declared to be a motte or castle mound, with its origins in the medieval period. And at first glance, there is no reason to doubt this interpretation. It bears all the hallmarks of a motte – a conical, flat topped mound, its base circa 30m in diameter, standing prominently in an elevated position in the landscape, in an area where other medieval sites have been recorded.

However, excavations carried out in the early 2000s at the behest of Historic Scotland, turned this interpretation on its head. The excavation revealed that far from being a mere 1000 years old, the mound was in fact closer to around 4000 years old.

While the lower part of the mound was seen to be natural, at its core was a large man-made stone structure which appears to have marked out an area used for burials during the Bronze Age.

An Iron Age site

The mound was reused in the Iron Age for an altogether different purpose, something more akin to that of a medieval motte. It appears to have been used as a small defended occupation site or “fortlet”, a palisade (wooden fence) having been built on one side of the mound with a stone revetment (which included a saddle quern) on the south east side. Within this defended area, multiple layers of occupation and demolition were recorded; one feature was radiocarbon dated to 170 +/- 45 AD while in another feature a sherd of mid-2nd Century AD Samian ware was found, definitively placing the use of this site in the Iron Age period.

Other artefacts found include a number of flint tools and a copper alloy ring, possibly part of a horse harness. Tellingly, no medieval artefacts were recovered.

No doubt there are more secrets buried within Tillydrone Mote. If there’s one thing this site teaches us it’s that you should not be afraid to question what’s gone before you - there is always more to learn!

Claire Herbert - Regional Archaeologist, Archaeology Service for Aberdeenshire, Moray, Angus and Aberdeen City Councils