LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 6541 (None)
NMR: NS 33 SE 11 (41961)
SM: 90112
NGR: NS 3636 3451
X: 236360 Y: 634510 (OSGB36)
Excavation of Dundonald Castle 1986-93 has not only revealed evidence of Iron Age and Early medieval occupation, but also a length of a vitrified rampart some 4m in thickness lying immediately E of the later barmkin wall, while at the NE corner of the barmkin there was also evidence of a timber palisade; excavation of metalled road surfaces and a groove worn in the bedrock indicated that there was an entrance just S of the length of rampart that was uncovered. Unfortunately the full extent and dates of these earlier defences are unknown, though the presence of E-ware, a glass bead and evidence of metalworking in the assemblage of objects apparently associated with occupation of the interior when the rampart was burnt, suggests that this was a high status site and was probably fortified in at least the the 7th century AD. The assemblage of shale objects, however, is as likely to be Iron Age in date, and the construction of successive round-houses, followed by rectangular buildings, the latter apparently destroyed at the same time as the rampart, attests several periods of occupation when fortifications may have been erected during the 1st millennium BC and the 1st millennium AD. The excavators speculated that occupation on the hilltop had evolved from an Iron Age hillfort into an early medieval dun with a timber-laced wall enclosing about 0.12ha, and the identification of a patch of apparently in situ vitrifaction somewhere to the W of the stone castle led them to propose that the dun had formed a citadel within a larger enclosure, whose circuit was also roughly dictated by the topography of the hilltop. The positions of the two circuits shown on their phased plan of the hilltop (Ewart et al 2004, 28, fig 8) enclose areas of 0.15ha and 0.28ha respectively, but no great reliance can be put upon this interpretation. There are no radiocarbon dates for any of the early features and the use of thermoluminescence on vitrifaction has now been shown to be unreliable, albeit that in this instance it provided a date centred on AD 1000.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -511774 Y: 7474610 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.597342367927214 Latitude: 55.576722581840606 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: South Ayrshire
Historic County: Ayrshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Dundonald
None
| Extant | ✗ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✓ |
None
| Woodland | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation | ✗ |
| Parkland | ✓ |
| Pasture (Grazing) | ✗ |
| Arable | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken | ✓ |
| Bare Outcrop | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland | ✗ |
| Heath | ✗ |
| Built-up | ✓ |
| Coastal Grassland | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| Contour Fort | ✓ |
| Partial Contour Fort | ✗ |
| Promontory Fort | ✗ |
| Hillslope Fort | ✗ |
| Level Terrain Fort | ✗ |
| Marsh Fort | ✗ |
| Multiple Enclosure Fort | ✗ |
| Hilltop | ✓ |
| Coastal Promontory | ✗ |
| Inland Promontory | ✗ |
| Valley Bottom | ✗ |
| Knoll/Hillock/Outcrop | ✗ |
| Ridge | ✗ |
| Cliff/Plateau-edge/Scarp | ✗ |
| Hillslope | ✗ |
| Lowland | ✗ |
| Spur | ✗ |
Dominant Topographic Feature: None
| North | ✗ |
| Northeast | ✗ |
| East | ✗ |
| Southeast | ✗ |
| South | ✗ |
| Southwest | ✗ |
| West | ✗ |
| Northwest | ✗ |
| Level | ✓ |
Altitude: 50.0m
N/A
There is no C14 chronology from the pre-castle phases and the use of thermoluminescence on the rampart is technically flawed. Its use on other contexts is of uncertain value, with wide standards of error. E ware in contexts also associated with crucibles indicate a phase of occupation in at least the 7th century AD.
Reliability: C - Low
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✓ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✓ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| Artefactual: | None |
| Other: | Thermoluminescence |
The castle is depicted on early maps, but the presence of an early medieval fort on the hilltop is first postulated by Lloyd Laing (1975, 37). The castle was Scheduled in 1920. Excavations were carried out by Gordon Ewart on behalf of Historic Scotland 1986-93.
| Other (1920): | Scheduled |
| Excavation (1986): | Beginning of excavation and the discovery of the vitrified rampart (Ewart and Pringle 2004) |
Complex stratified sequence of round-houses and rectangular buildings
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| No Known Features | ✓ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| No Known Excavation | ✗ |
| Pits | ✓ |
| Postholes | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✓ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
None
| No Known Geophysics | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
Finds include: coarse prehistoric pottery; three sherds of E ware; gold wire; bronze fibula; iron spearhead; iron knife; nail-headed bone pin; several shale bangle; shale ring; shale pendant; shale spacer bead; shale gaming piece; and several other pierced discs of shale and slate.
| No Known Finds | ✗ |
| Pottery | ✓ |
| Metal | ✓ |
| Metalworking | ✓ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✓ |
| Lithics | ✓ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | None of the circuit is visible |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Uncertain (South east): | Form of the entrance is unknown |
Single vitified rampart with evidence of beam slots
| Area 1: | 0.15ha. |
| Total: | 0.15ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.28ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | Unknown circuit |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 1 |
| Partial Univallate | ✓ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
None
| None | ✓ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Rubble | ✗ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✓ |
| Murus Duplex | ✗ |
| Timber-framed | ✗ |
| Timber-laced | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✓ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✓ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
Number of Ditches: None
| ✓ | The putative outer defence might be construed as an annexe enclosing an overall area of about 0.28ha. |
Ewart, G, and Pringle, D 2004 'Dundonald Castle Excavations 1986-93'. Scottish Archaeol J 26 (2004), 1-166
Laing, L R (1975) The archaeology of late Celtic Britain and Ireland c. 400-1200 AD. London
Atlas of Hillforts:
Wikidata:
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
and should be cited as:
Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk
Document Version 1.1