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Dalladies
Unenclosed Settlement (Iron Age), Unidentified Pottery (Roman)
Site Name Dalladies
Classification Unenclosed Settlement (Iron Age), Unidentified Pottery (Roman)
Alternative Name(s) 'Dalladies Site 2'
Canmore ID 35953
Site Number NO66NW 25
NGR NO 6256 6734
NGR Description Centred at NO 6256 6734
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/35953
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Fettercairn
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Kincardine And Deeside
- Former County Kincardineshire
NO66NW 25 626 673
For possibly-comparable site of Leitchestown, Deskford (NJ 5213 6347), see NJ56SW 16.
(NO 626 673) An apparently random series of ditches, pits and post-holes cut into the gravel of a terrace near the River North Esk was revealed during stripping prior to quarrying in 1967 and was excavated by Watkins in 1971 and 1972. They had been deliberately refilled, shortly after their construction, by a rich dark soil containing large quantities of charcoal and cremated bone.
The ditches are all different, varying in size, cross-section, length, plan and content and the fact that they criss-cross each other indicates that they were dug separately, at intervals, with no respect for earlier refilled features. Some contained timber post structures, which were usually removed before refilling, and one post-hole circle 9.75m in diameter was found.
Duncan (1967) describes, at NO 623 676, a horse-shoe shaped ditch about 50' across, 6' wide and 2' deep, the bottom being 5'6" below the present ground level. Another ditch, 10' long by 3' wide, radiated inward from the bottom of the horse-shoe, and ranged in depth from 2' at the outer end to nothing at the inner.
The OS field investigator (R L) in 1971 noted what he tentatively identified as a ring-ditch house at NO 6259 6728. It was roughly circular, averaging 2.5m wide and enclosing an area 17.0m in diameter. There were indications of a gap on the N arc and traces of paving in the E.
Deposits of animal jaws and shells occur and finds include 10 late 1st century - early 2nd century pot-sherds (Roman, Romano-British, imported ware and one sherd of native ware), iron objects, mostly nails, traces of metal-working debris and rotary querns. Hearths were also found, some of them in the ditches and one surrounded by carbonised barley. A thermoluminescent date for one of the hearths gave a similar date to the pottery.
Post-holes were not general over the whole stripped area but were concentrated in the S. There is no reason to suppose that the southern and western extremities of the site have yet been reached. Watkins, influenced by the absence of what he calls 'domestic remains or rubbish', dismisses the idea of a domestic site and suggests ritual usage, but, from the information given, a settlement would appear to be the more likely answer.
Visited by OS (R L) 18 August 1971.
R M Duncan 1967; T F Watkins 1972; Information contained in letter from Dr T Watkins to OS, 18 November 1972 and 19 November 1972; T F Watkins1973; D R Wilson 1973.
Quartz-treatment hearth exposed on stripped gravel surface, an oval scrape 640mm long by 260mm wide and 80mm deep (maxima), containing one large quartz nodule surrounded by charcoal and burnt soil. Entire contents of scrape bagged for further examination.
I Shepherd 1982.
Note (1982)
Dalladies NO 626 673 NO66NW 25
Excavation in 1971-3, in advance of quarrying, revealed parts of an unenclosed settlement on a gravel terrace about 200m SE of Dalladies farmhouse. The settlement comprised at least eight timber round-houses and a number of souterrain-like structures. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the site was occupied between the 3rd century BC and the 6th century AD.
RCAHMS 1982
(Watkins 1980)
