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Blairgowrie, Mote Hill

Motte (Medieval)

Site Name Blairgowrie, Mote Hill

Classification Motte (Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Mote Hill; Hurcheon Hill; Urchin Hill; Blairgowrie Manse

Canmore ID 28727

Site Number NO14NE 3

NGR NO 1785 4544

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/28727

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Perth And Kinross
  • Parish Blairgowrie
  • Former Region Tayside
  • Former District Perth And Kinross
  • Former County Perthshire

Archaeology Notes

NO14NE 3 1785 4542

(NO 1785 4542) Mote Hill {NR}

OS 6" map, Perthshire, (1938)

The circular mound consists of strata of earth and gravel and is surrounded on the top with a dyke of the same materials.

OSA 1796 (J Johnston)

Near the manse there formerly existed a green conical mount, about 200 yards in circumference, called the Hurcheon or Urchin Hill, where baronial courts were held traditionally.

"Some years ago" the whole mound was removed.

In 1838, when digging foundations for a new wing to the manse, there was discovered, in the centre of the space formerly occupied by the mound, a circular excavation, 3 feet in diameter by 6 feet in depth which had been filled in with black unctuous mould, intermixed with ashes and charred wood.

NSA 1845 (footnote by R M'Donald)

The new wing added to the manse in 1838 was the "backwing or kitchen".

Name Book 1863

No trace of the mound was seen. The back wing of the manse (Name Book 1863) is at NO 1785 4544.

Visited by OS (RDL) 21 March 1963

Activities

Field Visit (November 1987)

There are no visible remains of the flat-topped, green conical mound which stood about 170m S of the old parish church (NO14NE 7). The authors of the Statistical Accounts record respectively that it consisted of strata of earth and gravel, and that it was about 200 yards (182.88m) in circumference. In 1838 when it was removed 'a circular excavation, about three feet (0.91m) in diameter, and six feet (1.83m) in depth, which had been dug far down into the hard gravel, and afterwards filled up with a black unctuous looking mould, intermixed with ashes and pieces of burnt wood,' was found at the centre of the space formerly occupied by the mound.

Visited by RCAHMS (IMS) November 1987.

OSA 1796; NSA 1845; RCAHMS 1990.

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