stirling-1963-vol-1/05_116

Transcription

No. 86 -- DUNS -- No. 86

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 20. Dun, Castlehill Wood (No. 86)

entrance, being a few inches lower than the rest of the
enclosed area. In the absence of excavation the purpose
of this arrangement is obscure.

724919 -- NS 79 SW (unnoted) -- 4 July 1955

86. 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 ¹ 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 has 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 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.

751908 -- NS 79 SE (unnoted) -- 20 August 1955

1 P.S.A.S., xc (1956-7), 24 ff

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