Castlehill Wood
Dun (Iron Age)
Site Name Castlehill Wood
Classification Dun (Iron Age)
Canmore ID 46233
Site Number NS79SE 49
NGR NS 75079 90902
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/46233
- Council Stirling
- Parish St Ninians
- Former Region Central
- Former District Stirling
- Former County Stirlingshire
NS79SE 49 7508 9090.
NS 7508 9090. A dun, which was excavated in 1955, situated on a small crag of dolerite. Oval in plan, it measures 75' NE-SW by 50' within a drystone wall 16' thick, the faces of which are of large, angular blocks, and the core of boulders, small rubble and earth. The entrance passage, partly paved, is in the E, and is provided with door-checks. Within these, the passage measures 4'6" in width, and outside them, 3'9". Traces of what might have been the bottom step of a stair, rising up the inner face of the wall, were found at a point 8' N of the entrance. The dun had no mural stair or galleries, but two sets of mural chambers of unfamiliar design, incorporating flues, were located, one in the W and the other in the S arc of the wall.
Much of the interior of the dun is now bare rock, but excavation was possible in the shallow humus between this and the wall. No structures were found and no formal hearths, but remains of fires and various small artifacts showed that the occupants had lived in this area, possibly in wattle-and-daub shelters. The finds, though few, included Roman glass and quern-fragments, and suggested that the dun was occupied in the 1st or early 2nd century AD.
RCAHMS 1963
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 24 September 1968
This dun is generally as described by the previous authority. Its defence is aided on the S and W by the cliff edge of the rock outcrop upon which it is built. Elsewhere the wall survives to a maximum height of 1.0m.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (BS) 13 November 1975
A saddle quern of schist, 490mm by 420mm and 130mm thick, with a depressed smooth upper surface, lies in a sheep fold NW of the dun. A sandstone pot lid, roughly oval in shape and measuring 155mm by 135mm and 25mm thick, with signs of flaking along one edge, was found in the interior of the dun.
N Aitchison 1982
Bun-shaped quern; RMS HH 589.
E J MacKie 1971
Field Visit (20 August 1955)
NS 79 SE 751 908 (unnoted)
Dun, Castlehill Wood.
This dun is situated at a height of 650 ft. O.D. on a small crag of dolerite 1100 yds. WSW. of the ruins of Castlehill farmhouse. It was excavated in 1955 (Feachem 1959), and the following account is based on the published report.
The dun is oval on plan (Fig. 20) and measures 75 ft. from NE. to SW. by 50 ft. transversely within a drystone wall 16 ft. thick. The faces of the wall are composed of large, angular blocks, and the core of boulders, small rubble and earth. The entrance, in the E. arc, is provided with door-checks. Within these, the passage measures 4 ft. 6 in. in width, and outside them 3 ft. 9 in. A few paving-stones were laid to level the rough rock-surface of the passage floor. Traces of what might have been the bottom step of a stair, rising up the inner face of the wall, were found at a point 8 ft. N. of the entrance. The dun had no mural stair or galleries, but two sets of mural chambers of unfamiliar design were located, one in the W. and the other in the S. arc of the wall. The former consisted of an entrance-passage, 6 ft. in length, which varied in width from 2 ft. at the outer to 3 ft. at the inner end, where it opened into a circular chamber 4 ft. in diameter. From either side of the passage a narrow duct or flue, about 19 ft. in length and 1 ft. 6 in. in width, led off obliquely through the core of the wall to debouch into the interior of the dun. The construction in the S. arc consisted of a similar passage, one flue and a smaller chamber. Ash and a clinker of very light weight were found in the form of deposits in both passages and all the flues. While no parallel could be found for such systems of chambers and flues, the excavator suggested that they might have been corn-drying installations.
Much of the interior of the dun is now bare rock, but excavation was possible in the shallow humus between this and the wall. No structures were found and no formal hearths, but remains of fires and various small artifacts showed that the occupants had lived in this area, possibly in wattle-and-daub shelters. The finds, though few, included Roman glass and quern-fragments, and suggested that the dun was occupied in the 1st or early 2nd century A.D.
RCAHMS 1963, visited 20 August 1955.
Reference (1957)
This site is noted in the ‘List of monuments discovered during the survey of marginal land (1951-5)’ (RCAHMS 1957, xiv-xviii).
Information from RCAHMS (GFG), 24 October 2012.
Field Visit (September 1978)
Castlehill Wood NS 750 909 NS79SE 49
This dun measures 22.9m by 15.2m within a dry-stone wall 4.9m thick. Excavations in 1955 yielded evidence to suggest that the dun was in use in the 1st or early 2nd century AD.
RCAHMS 1979, visited September 1978
(Feachem 1957; RCAHMS 1963, p. 81, no. 86)
Excavation (September 2020)
NS 75080 90900 In September 2020 there was a small scale reopening on the 1950s trenches to recover stratified charcoal for radiocarbon dating (Canmore ID: 46233).
Archive: NRHE
Funder: Murray Cook and MOD
Murray Cook
(Source: DES Volume 21)
