Lower Greenyards, Bannockburn

A trial trench was set out, 1.0m wide and eventually 65.0m long, running S from the highest point of the fence along the N side of the field. Five parallel or concentric ditches were found. The innermost, i.e. the most northerly, was 3.5m wide x 2.0m deep, of complex section and containing a complex stratification of fills and re-digging. Ditches 2, 3, and 4 were roughly V-shaped, 5.5m wide x 2.3m deep, 3.0 x 2.0m, and 6.0m x 2.0m. Between ditches 4 and 5 lay two possible palisade trenches 4.7m apart with a post hole 0.4m in diameter between them. Ditch 5, the outermost found, was flat-bottomed, 7.5m wide x 1.5m deep. No finds were made. It was not possible to extend the excavation N of the field boundary.

Stirling Field Archaeol Soc 1974

Lower Greenyards NS 815 904 NS89SW 12

The defences of this multi-period promontory fort were sectioned in 1974 to reveal five concentric ditches and what may be two palisade trenches.

RCAHMS 1979, visited September 1978

RCAHMS 1963, p. 420, no. 493; DES (1974), 65

NS816 904. A large area of the promontory was excavated to the north of the ditch section cut by the Stirling Field Group (DES, 1974). A sixth ditch was noted to the north of "Ditch 1" as defined in 1974. This ditch cut "Ditch 1" and a complex palisade. It had traces of possible settlement activity within its fill. To the east and west, trenches were opened to examine the defences on the flanks of the promontory. On the east, multiple recutting of the ditches was noted.

Within the defended area the remnants of two timber houses were found. One was defined by a circular trench c15m in diameter and c50cm deep. A porched entrance lay at the south east. Within the ring were two concentric rings of posts. The second house survived as an arc of a circular light groove, 5cm to 10cm deep, which would originally have been c11m in diameter. The rest of the structure had been destroyed by erosion and recent sand extraction. The two houses were not contemporary. The larger house was cut by a light fence which ran across its south east edge.

Coarse pottery was recovered from the larger house, the palisade and the ditches. Neolithic and Food Vessel pottery was also found in the ditches. Half of an EBA stone battle-axe, a spindle whorl and a blue glass bead were found in the topsoil. Probable charred cereal remains, and burnt bone fragments were recovered from some pits. A split oak timber was found in waterlogged ditch deposits. A peat column was taken from a bog immediately to the east of the site.

Sponsor : SDD (AM) - CEU.

G J Barclay 1982d.

NS816 904 A second season of excavation was undertaken in April and May 1985 on the promontory fort in the field to the south of the 1982 excavation (DES 1982). Aerial photographs show that at least 5 ditches lay to the south of the ditch discovered in 1982. A large area was opened over the defences and presumed entrance revealing 7 ditches, 5 trenches for palisades or rampart revetments and 2 post alignments belonging to several phases of defence construction. The nature of the natural sand had caused had caused rapid silting of the ditches and most showed evidence of recutting. Finds from the ditches include many sherds of large course vessels of iron Age date. The main aproach to the fort was along the east shoulder of the promontory where erosion has resulted in severe truncation and loss of entrance features. This erosion has caused a very deep build-up of soil in the gully to the east burying ditches and ramparts and forming a complex stratigraphy first noted in 1982.

A ring grooved house, replaced by a second one, was found to the south of the defences, on the line of the main approach and 2 four post structures lay to the west of them. A possible third ring groove house lay immediately to the north of the outermost ditch. The houses and outer lines of defence have been damaged by medieval rig and furrow cultivation.

Sponsor : HB&M - CEU.

J S Rideout 1985b.

Excavations undertaken in 1982, 1984 and 1985 on cropmark sites of a promontory fort and nearby palisaded homestead revealed structural remains mainly of the Iron Age and evidence of occupation or other activity from the Mesolithic to the present day. The palisaded homestead was paralleled by a similar homestead phase of the occupation of the promontory, later replaced by a fort with three periods of defence construction.

The project was organized and funded by Historic Scotland.

J S Rideout 1996.

An aerial transcription was produced from oblique aerial photographs. Information from Historic Environment Scotland (BM) 31 March 2017.

The site of this fort, which occupied a gravel promontory formed between gullies draining into a burn that cuts through the escarpment of an ancient shoreline a little way to the N, has been subsumed into the housing estates on the eastern fringe of Bannockburn. First recorded as a promontory fort, with five ditches cutting across the neck of the promontory (RCAHMS 1963, 420, no.493), it was subject to a trial excavation in 1974 by the Stirling Field Archaeological Society, and in advance of the housing development a more extensive investigation by the Central Excavation Unit of the Scottish Development Department in 1982, 1984 and 1985 (Rideout 1996). This revealed a complex palimpsest of ditches and palisades, though it did not prove possible to elucidate the complete sequence and dates of their construction. The smallest area enclosed by a ditched defence measured little more than 35m in diameter (0.09ha) at the tip of the promontory, but if the outermost ditch on the S represented the sole defences of the fort at one stage of its development, it would have cut off an area measuring about 80m from N to S by up to 40m transversely (0.3ha). The maximum and minimum areas enclosed thus range from only 0.09ha to 0.3ha, and the complexity of the ditches indicates that there may have been a series of enclosures of different sizes between these extremes; apart from through the innermost ditches, there was consistently an entrance on the SSE, extending along the eastern margin of the promontory, but, surprisingly, machine-cut trenches on the N, E and W also revealed a complex history of scarping and defensive works around the flanks of the promontory. A substantial timber round-house was uncovered at the centre of the interior, from which there is a single radiocarbon date from a post-hole of 770-400 cal BC, and a second from a pit that cut it of 410 to 170 cal BC. An early medieval glass bead was also recovered from the interior, other finds including coarse pottery, two saddle querns and a shale ring.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1594

The location, classification and period of this site have been reviewed.