stirling-1963-vol-1/05_211

Transcription

No. 187 -- MOTTES -- No. 187
fragmentary banks and indeterminate hollows. The wall
may have formed the SE. side of a range of buildings; at
its NE. end there is a return, in the inner angle of which
there may have been a garderobe vent.

681858 -- NS 68 NE -- 7 October 1952

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 67. Motte, Sir John de Graham's Castle (No. 186)

187. Motte, Keir Knowe of Drum. At a point one
mile WNW. of Kippen, the lands of Drum and Gateside
farms are traversed from W. to E. by a stretch of the
steep slope of an ancient shore-line (Introduction, pp.
18 f.) which falls northwards some 50 ft. to the carse-
lands of the River Forth. An unnamed burn flowing
between the two farms in an east-north-easterly direction
has formed a promontory between the steep slope and the
deep gorge through which it debouches on to the plain.
The tip of the promontory, which stands at an elevation
of 100 ft. O.D., is cut off from the adjacent land by a
broad, shallow gully, the surface of the portion thus
isolated being oval on plan and measuring 75 ft. in
length from ENE. to WSW. by 70 ft. transversely
(Fig. 68). It slopes slightly down to ENE., and, while
more than half of it is flat, several low, irregular stony
mounds (S in Fig. 68), which are covered with bracken
and grass, occupy the W. and SW. parts.
The W. flank of the mound rises to a height of 11 ft.
above the bottom of the gully, while the N. flank rises
to 40 ft. and the S. flank to 25 ft. above the flatter levels
below. On the E. there is a terrace (T) 20 ft. below the
level of the summit, and below this there is a further
drop of 30 ft. The terrace, which measures 30 ft. in
maximum width and 150 ft. in length, may, if it is not
entirely natural, represent a continuation of the line of
defence formed to W. and N. by the gully. The whole
of the promontory is planted with deciduous trees.
While it seems probable that the promontory had
been artificially modified to some extent, and that such
a site would have been highly suitable for a defensive
structure, nothing visible before excavation gave any
indication of the date of the work or of the purpose to
which the site had been put. Although three records of
recent quarrying for stones were known, ¹ none of them
provided any useful information. Trial excavations,
however, carried out in June 1957, by one of the Com-
mission's officers, ² revealed the foundations of a square
building near the central point of the promontory and a
system of defences round the margin.

1 Ordnance Survey Name Book, Kippen parish, 21;
"Kippen", 9; Chrystal, W., The Kingdom of Kippen, Stirling
(1903), 138.
2 The Commissioners are indebted to Messrs. W. R.
Paterson and Houston for permission to carry out this work.

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