Dowhill Mount

NS20SW 4 2028 0294.

(NS 2028 0294) Dun & Motte (NR)

OS 6" map (1971)

This structure consists of a knoll round the base of which a wide ditch has been drawn on all sides except the W. The ditch carries an upcast bank on its outer margin, and Smith notes short ditches outwith this at each extremity. The knoll is natural, but may have been artificially trimmed round the sides. On its summit, there is a circular enclosure about 45 ft in diameter formed by a drystone wall which is set back a few yards from the margin of the summit area. This enclosure could be contemporary with the ditch, and may represent a round dun with associated earthworks, or they may be of different dates, in which case the mound, and outworks, is presumably a motte.

The ONB notes that a quantity of human bones was found some years before 1856 immediately E of the feature by agricultural workers.

RCAHMS MS, visited 1971; J Smith 1895; Name Book 1856

Situated on the edge of an escarpment is a flat-topped mound, 4.0m high, slightly hollowed-out on its summit, with a small enclosure, about 16.0m in diameter, on top. The earth-and-stone bank is 1.0m high externally. There is a 2.0m wide terrace between this enclosure and the edge of the mound. Around the base of the knoll, except on the W, is a 10.0m wide, flat-bottomed ditch, flanked by an outer bank which attains a masimum height of 2.0m on the NE. Both its N and S extremities end abruptly on the steep W slope. The ditch appears to stop short of the escarpment on the S side only, although this may be an illusion caused by a later bank which crosses the ditch here. There is a 30.0m stretch of a 10.0m wide outer ditch beyond the outer bank on the S side, and on the counterscarp of this ditch there is the suggestion of at upcast bank, but it is spread and diminishes towards the E. There is now no sign of bank or ditch's continuation in a ploughed field on the E and N.

On the W, at the edge of the escarpment, fragments of dry-coursed walling, 0.5m high, are exposed in two places. This may be revetting contemporary with the upper enclosure, or simply part of the more recent bank which runs along the crest of the escarpment. Without excavation, it is difficult to ascertain if this is a dun or motte, or indeed a two-phased work.

Visited by OS (JLD) 7 October 1955

This site is as described by the previous authorities. The remains appear to represent two structural elements of different periods.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 15 March 1967

This earthwork is generally as described. The edges of the mound are slipping and the ditches are silted. The field bank, up to 0.5m high, which runs along the top of the coastal slope on the W, appears to merge with the W side of the upper enclosure.

This sub-circular enclosure, with its terrace and broad ditch, is almost certainly not a dun, unless excavation can reveal wall faces under the earth cover; and the artificially-scarped natural mound is doubtfully a motte. Its origin and purpose are conjectural, but it possibly can be compared with the excavated homesteads at NS 2148 4539 (NS24NW 9) and NS 5726 3887 (NS53NE 6). (There is a strong resemblance between this site and one in Strath Navar, Sutherland - NC75NW 14).

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (MJF) 1 November 1980

Dowhill Mount: An earthwork is situated on the edge of a steep scarp 120m S of Dowhill farmhouse. It comprises a mound (4.5m high with a level top measuring 31m by 24m) encircled by broad double ditches with external banks, except on the W where the ground falls away steeply. The summit of the mound is occupied by a roughly circular enclosure (flattened on the W) 14m in diameter within the remains of a drystone wall now reduced to a stony bank up to 4.5m thick and 1m high. Both the earthwork and the enclosure are probably of medieval date.

RCAHMS 1983, visited 1982.