Dinning
Motte And Bailey (Medieval)
Site Name Dinning
Classification Motte And Bailey (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Nithside
Canmore ID 65243
Site Number NX89SE 10
NGR NX 8917 9012
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/65243
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Closeburn
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Nithsdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NX89SE 10 8917 9012
(NX 8917 9012) Mote & Bailey (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
A motte and bailey occupying about half the summit of a natural elongated hillock which runs NW-SE and rises to 45' at the higher NW end.
The motte is a simple truncated earthen cone, 14' high set at the NW end of the hillock. The summit c 20' across is circular and dished, with the peripheral mound which is slightly broken on the NW. A slight terrace round the NW end of the natural hillock 20' from the base may be artificial.
The bailey is oblong 66' by 57' broad enclosed by an earthen rampart slight at the sides but massive towards the SE front, through the centre of which has been the entrance. There is no trench between the motte and the bailey.
A ditch 34' wide and 12' deep to the scarp and 4' to the counterscarp crosses the hillock immediately in front of the bailey. This ditch must have crossed by a bridge or drawbridge since there is no gangway.
In 1806 the structure bore the name 'Din-Inis' from which the neighbouring farm Dinning (NX 8924 8988) took its name.
Scots Mag 1806; R M F Watson 1901; RCAHMS 1920, visited 1913.
As described and in good condition.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (SFS) 10 June 1975.
Field Visit (7 May 1913)
Mote, Dinning.
This mote lies some 200 yards north of the farm of Dinning, and with its base-court or bailey is fashioned on a long natural hillock lying north-west and south-east, which rises out of a stretch of haughland reaching to the Nith, about ¼ mile to the westward. The east slope of the valley commences to rise sharply some 50 yards distant from the base of the hillock. From the southeast end the knoll rises gradually to its northwest extremity, on which the mote itself has been erected. With the base-court lying at the south-east end, the whole construction occupies about half of the length of the hillock. In form the mote is a simple truncated cone, composed, as far as it is possible to tell, of earth, and rising to a height of some 14 feet above the level of the base-court, while a steep gradient with a vertical height of 45 feet reaches to the base of the hillock on front and sides. On the terminal slope, some 20 feet up from the base, is a slight terrace which is possibly artificial. The plat of the mote has been circular with a diameter of some 20 feet, and shows a shallow bowl-shaped hollow, the wall of which has been slightly broken down on the north-west. The base-court is oblong on plan, measuring 66 feet in length by 57 feet in breadth, and is enclosed by an earthen rampart, somewhat slight on the sides but massive to the front, which impinges directly on the sides of the mote hill, uninterrupted by any intervening trench. The entrance to the court has been through the centre of the southeast front.
A trench 34 feet in width, 12 feet in depth below the crest of the scarp, and some 4 feet below that of the counterscarp, has been dug across the hillock from side to side in front of the rampart. There is no gangway across the trench, which has probably been covered by a bridge or drawbridge.
RCAHMS 1920, visited 7 May 1913.
OS 6” map xxxi. S.E. (‘Earthwork’).
