Dunstaffnage Castle, Argyll & Bute: excavations in the north tower and east range, 1987-94 (original) (raw)
Related papers
A study of Dundonnell Castle, Co. Roscommon
Dundonnell Castle will be explored through a multi-disciplinary approach. This study aims to provide a greater understanding of a simultaneously neglected but oft mentioned potentially multi-period site that has been given many roles in previous scholarly work. This is without ever having been studied properly and fully in its own right. This thesis combines an archaeological analysis of the earthworks and masonry building at Dundonnell with a large corpus of historical material that pertains to the immediate and surrounding area over an extended period of time. More specifically, the thesis will attempt to recreate the importance of the three possible phases at the site, via the use of historical, cartographical, and archaeological evidence to demonstrate the site’s dates of importance, function and role in the wider areas, and to try and pinpoint the site on the historical plane. The study of the castle type, known as the stronghouse, will also be examined in relation to Dundonnell, in an attempt to further the knowledge of this understudied monument type.
Archaeological excavations at Castle Sween, Knapdale, Argyll & Bute, 1989-90
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Excavations have thrown light on the history and use of the castle from its construction, c. 1200, to the present day. A forge and kilns are evidence of industrial activity prior to 1650. Evidence for ranges of buildings within the courtyard amplifies previous descriptions of the castle. There are specialist reports on: `Coins' by Nicholas M McQ Holmes (533--4); `The ceramics' by D Caldwell & H Stewart (546--50); `The botanical remains' by T G Holden (550--2); `Charcoal' by Coralie Mills (552--3); `Faunal remains' by Finbar McCormick (553--5).
Recent excavations at Dunfermline Abbey, Fife
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1982
, which lies towards the SW of the town, was founded by Queen Margaret c 1070 as a daughter house of Christ Church, Canterbury. The nave of the 12th-century church erected by her son David I survives complete, adjoining to the W the 19th-century church presently in use. To the S lay the claustral ranges. The church, dorter and frater were built around three sides of a cloister in the normal fashion, but the arrangement of the W side of the cloister is obscure. There is a southwestern range built at an angle to the rest of the buildings and joined to the frater by a vaulted gatehouse. These buildings, their masonry dating from the 13th or, perhaps more likely, 14th century, were later used as a palace and continued as a principal residence of the Scottish kings until the 17th century. The peculiarities of plan are dictated in part at least by the fact that the Abbey is built on sloping ground at the edge of a steep ravine.
Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports
The remains of the south-west corner of the 12th-century Cistercian abbey cloister at Dundrennan (National Grid Reference: NX 7492 4750) were cleared of rubble and 19th-century landscaping infill over four seasons of fieldwork in the early 1990s. Elements of the warming house, novice's day room, great drain and latrine block undercroft were revealed. Coupled with a short programme of geophysical survey and test-trenching, new evidence of the sequence of building for the abbey was revealed by excavation. The project was funded by Historic Scotland.
Excavations at Castlehill of Strachan, 1980-1
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
A typical northern motte had a timber hall on the summit, two phases of palisade, surrounding ditch and approach causeway. The 13th century landscape was reconstructed using geomorphology and air photography. Coins, pottery of c 1250 to early 14th. Three furnaces/ovens were set on reused millstones. Metalwork, animal bones, pottery, palaeobotany.
Maiden Castle, Insch, Aberdeenshire: choice and architecture in Pictland
"The Hillforts of Strathdon Project explored the chronological relationships between the various hill-forts (Cook 2010). The aim was to undertake keyhole excavation, with local volunteers on a range of these sites to recover dating evidence. The project examined six hillforts over five years: Bruce’s Camp (NJ71NE 3; Cook et al forthcoming), Maiden Castle (NJ62SE2); Dunnideer (NJ62NW1; Cook et al 2008); Hill of Newleslie (NJ52NE 31), Hill of Barra (NJ82NW 4; Cook et al 2009) and Cairnmore (NJ52SW 9; Cook et al 2010). This paper presents an interim account of the work at Maiden Castle and proposes that the architecture of the fortifications represents a deliberate choice laden with meaning and significance. Two potential sources for the architecture are identified, the first, Iron Age hillforts and Complex Atlantic Roundhouses (and cognate forms) and the second, putative west coast early medieval duns and Irish raths. Finally, these potential choices will be set in the context of the dynamic religious and political situation in contemporary North-East Scotland."