Dun Knock, Dunning

NO 0231 1431 Situated to the SE of Dunning village, the fort at Dun Knock was first identified through aerial photography. Cropmarks of at least three, roughly parallel, ditches curve around the contour of the hill. As part of the SERF project the excavations undertaken 4–24 August 2008 were intended to characterise the defences and interior of the fort and to retrieve any dating evidence.

A total of five evaluation trenches were excavated in the areas to the S and W of the cropmarks. The defences were explored with three trenches, one of which, 1.5 x 20m, was situated along the E side of the hill, near a possible entrance to the fort. The other two trenches, 1.5 x 5m and 1.5 x 6m, were located on the W flank of the hill. Two small test trenches, each 2 x 2m, were excavated in the interior of the fort.

The results indicated that a variety of building techniques and materials were used in constructing the ditches and ramparts. Timber played a key role in consolidating the ramparts, which seem to have been largely composed of the natural sandy soil. Only one ditch, 1.5m in maximum width, was noted in the trench on the E flank of the hill. At the base of this ditch there was a line of stones, including a reused vitrified stone, which may have supported a timber palisade.

The defences on the W side of the hill appeared to have been more substantial. Stone collapse was found in a thick layer of charcoal-rich soil in the third outer ditch, suggesting that this destroyed rampart may once have been faced with stone and interlaced with timber. The traces of what may be a rectangular scooped structure were recorded in a possible entrance to the hillfort. Parallel lines of stone running along the base of the scoop may have supported wooden beams.

Prehistoric pottery, daub and fragments of both saddle and rotary quern stones were found in association with this feature. A single posthole of an earlier feature lay beneath this structure. In the interior of the fort, near the summit of the hill, one of the small test pits recorded evidence for multiple phases of activity. This included a substantial pit filled with redeposited gravel capped by a stone feature, which had been disturbed at a later date by a robber trench.

www.gla.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/SERF

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: British Academy, Historic Scotland, Department of Archaeology University of Glasgow and Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

T Poller (Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow), 2008

NO 02314 14312 In 2008 the SERF project excavated five trenches on the hillfort of Dunknock. In August 2009, one of these trenches (Trench E) was re-opened and extended. This second phase of excavation was a collaboration between the Department of Archaeology and GUARD.

In 2008 Trench E had identified contexts relating to one of the hillfort’s ramparts. The 2009 excavations aimed to clarify the stratigraphy of this part of the site and to further our understanding of the chronology of the construction and use of the hillfort. The work involved the re-opening of the 2008 trench, removal of the backfill, continued excavation within the limits of the trench and an extension of the trench to the N.

The 2009 excavations clarified the stratigraphy of the trench down to the natural subsoil. In 2008, a series of

contexts relating to the construction of a rampart had been identified. In 2009 these rampart construction contexts were related to an underlying levelling deposit and the old ground surface upon which the rampart had been built. In addition, our understanding of the construction of the rampart was expanded by the identification of contexts relating to a previously unidentified wood and stone northern rampart face. The stratigraphy from 2008 was placed in a wider context through the identification and investigation of a ditch

lying c3.6m to the N of the rampart.

The 2008 radiocarbon dates from Trench E fell in a range from the 8th to 5th centuries BC; however, the nature of the parent contexts and materials of these dates means that the dates do not provide us with a secure understanding of the construction or use of this part of the fort. Radiocarbon dating of material recovered in 2009 will provide more secure dates; of particular significance are charcoal samples from a construction slot for the face of the rampart. Further corroborative dating evidence may be supplied by the analysis of pottery from the fills of the ditch to the N of the rampart.

Archive: University of Glasgow

Funder: Historic Scotland, University of Glasgow (Department of Archaeology) and GUARD

Chris Dalglish, Olivia Lelong, Gavin MacGregor and Dave Sneddon – University of Glasgow (SERF Project and GUARD)

NO 02300 14300 (Canmore ID: 26688, SMR: 9434) Three trenches were excavated at Dun Knock, a multi-ditched hilltop enclosure first identified as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The 13 June – 10 July 2015 investigations were designed to build on previous work in 2008 (SERF) and 2009 (GUARD).

The results showed that the hill went through various phases of enclosure and remodelling, which began as early as the Neolithic. The main trench, Trench E, stretched across the projected line of the five cropmark ditches. Of the five ditches noted on the aerial photographs, only four were identified

within the trench and of these only two have produced datable material. One ditch contained sherds of Neolithic pottery and a complete upturned bowl at its terminal. The second innermost ditch appeared to be recut and contained metalworking debris, including a crucible, dumped along its inner edge. Below this ditch a broad terrace was cut into the slope and surfaced with a series of pebble and cobble layers, built one on top of another. It has been presumed

that this terrace removed an earlier ditch and rampart. In a further, later, phase, a low roughly-built curvilinear stone wall was constructed above hillwash that had covered the cobble surfaces. The innermost ditch was narrow,

occupation on the site prior to the construction of this rampart.

Archive and report: National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE)

Funder: Historic Scotland

Website: www.glasgow.ac.uk/serf

Tessa Poller and Cathy MacIver – University of Glasgow

(Source: DES, Volume 16)

The site of a fort in the woodland on Dun Knock was first discovered in 1978, when cropmarks revealed the lines of no fewer than four ditches in the field to the NW. Subsequent fieldwork has revealed traces of the ploughed down defences in the woodland on the S, demonstrating that it is oval on plan, measuring about 105m from ENE to WSW by 45m transversely if the defences follow the contour round the summit (0.37ha). The ditches form a belt some 35m deep on the N, but may have broadened still further around the W flank of the hill, where a fifth ditch appears between the outermost and the third; on the S the ramparts and ditches are reduced to a belt of four low scarps on the slope, at the foot of which there are traces of cultivation rigs forming a series of low terraces. All four ditches on the NE are pierced by an entrance where the terminals are visible on the N side of the gap; the outer three all appear to turn slightly inwards, whereas the innermost, turns slightly outwards in the direction of the terminal of the second ditch. Evaluation trenches were excavated in 2008 and 2009 (Poller 2008; Dalglish et al 2009), revealing evidence that timber, stone and turf had been used in the construction of at least one of the outer ramparts and several pieces of vitrifaction were noted. A possible sunken-floored structure was identified within the interior, producing fragments of both pottery and daub, a few stone tools and a rotary quern, and fragments of a saddle quern were re-used in the packing of a post-hole cut through it. A large quarry has been dug through the defences on the SW, while a narrower pit has been driven into the interior from the ESE.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 09 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3011

The remains of this fort occupy the summit and slopes of Dun Knock, known locally as ‘The Dunnock’, an ENE to WSW orientated glacial knoll immediately SE of Dunning that appears to comprise mainly sands and gravels. ‘Dun Knock’ is named on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Perthshire 1866, Sheet CIX), but the writer of the contemporary Name Book summarised what was then known about the site when he stated ‘Whether there ever was a Camp on its Summit there is now no account either Traditional or otherwise existing’ (Perthshire, Volume 26, page 61). The presence of the fort was confirmed only as recently as 1978 when the cropmarks of multiple defences on its north side were recorded by the RCAHMS aerial survey programme. More recently (in 2008, 2009 and again in 2015), the fort has been investigated as part of Glasgow University’s Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) project, with excavation demonstrating not only the degree to which the defences have been eroded but also the variation in construction techniques used and the probability that the earthworks represent more than one period of construction. The fort was surveyed by HES (Survey and Recording) in March 2016.

Roughly D-shaped on plan, with the chord of the D formed by a steep natural slope on the SSE, the fort has measured about 100m from ENE to WSW by a maximum of 45m within a rampart or wall that has been completely ploughed out on the N and has been reduced to little more than an outer-facing scarp in that part of the fort presently lying within woodland. The cropmarks that are visible on aerial photographs indicate that the defences on the north, including an entrance on the NE, comprised at least four ditches which would have provided material to construct accompanying inner banks. However, elsewhere around the knoll, where the natural slopes are steeper, the defences may have been designed without ditches. This would go some way to explaining the terraced, close-set nature of the surviving features on the west, south and east.

The fort is bisected along its long axis by a post-and-wire fence that has succeeded a stone wall that is depicted on the 1st edition map and which, except for its WSW end, has been reduced to footings. As the modern fence still does, that wall separated arable ground to the north from woodland to the south. The fact that the footings of this wall are set well below the level of the ground surface to the south indicates that a considerable amount of soil loss had already taken place on the north side of the hill even before the wall was built. The remains of both rig-and-furrow and terraces are another indicator of a very long history of cultivation on and around the knoll. To the south of the fence, in the flattish interior of the fort, there are rigs up to about 7m in breadth which are aligned with the long axis of the knoll and which spill over the line of the inner rampart at both the WSW and ENE ends. The terraces, which measure up to 12m in breadth, sweep along the lower slopes of the knoll from the ESE around to the ENE where they have been truncated by the modern arable field.

The fort has also been affected by the digging of sand and gravel pits. One of these – at the south-east corner of the summit, though not actually depicted on the 1st edition of the map, is marked by an indentation in the 300 ft contour. A narrow track links this pit with the bottom of the slope. A second, much larger and deeper, pit has removed a large portion of the south-west flank of the knoll. It is not depicted on either the 1st or 2nd edition maps and it is probably of early 20th century date. Two small pits, one on either side of the stone wall that descends the WSW flank of the hill, are undated but must post-date the wall.

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (GG, AMcC, JRS) 31 March 2016.