stirling-1963-vol-1/05_106

Transcription

No. 69 -- FORTS -- No. 70
that the latter may be an independent structure of the
dun class which was built in the interior of an older, and
presumably abandoned, fort represented by walls D and
E. For convenience in obtaining building material,
brochs and ring-forts were occasionally erected inside
earlier, ruined fortifications, ¹ and, if the "citadel" is
abstracted, Dumyat is not essentially different from a
number of neighbouring Early Iron Age forts whose
walls contain vitrified material (e.g. Nos. 69 and 74).
The name Dumyat was considered by Watson ² to
represent Dun Myat, the fortress of the Maeatae,
probably the Miathi of Adamnan, ³ and this view is
generally held today. ⁴ The spelling in the Statistical
Account of Scotland is Dunmyatt, ⁵ but neither this nor
subsequent variations need be regarded as significant.
A small cup-shaped object of stone from"above
Blairlogie" ⁶ may have originated at the fort.

832973 -- NS 89 NW (unnoted) -- 19 June 1952

69. Fort, Abbey Craig. Abbey Craig is an isolated rocky
hill which rises abruptly for some 300 ft. from the
Carse of Stirling a quarter of a mile E. of Causewayhead.
The summit of the hill is level, and near the N. end there
is a fort (Fig. 8) which has been damaged by the

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 8 Fort, Abbey Craig (No. 69)

construction within it of the Wallace Monument, All
that remains is a substantial turf-covered bank, crescentic
on plan and 260 ft. in length, the ends of which lie close
to the brink of the precipice that forms the W. face of the
hill. The bank stands to a maximum height of 5 ft. above
the level of the interior and presumably represents a
ruined timber-laced wall since numerous pieces of
vitrified stones have been found on the slopes immedi-
ately below it.
The entrance to the fort presumably lay between one
end of the bank and the lip of the precipice, but both
the areas concerned have been disturbed by the con-
struction of modern approaches. The interior of the fort
measures about 175 ft. from N. to S. by about 125 ft.
transversely and the interior is featureless. Nimmo's
editor reports that "eleven brazen spears" were dis-
covered on Abbey Craig in 1784. ⁷

809956 -- NS 89 NW (unnoted) -- 17 June 1952

70. Fort, Gillies Hill. This fort, half a mile W. of
Polmaise Castle, is situated at a height of about 450 ft.
O.D. on the top of the steep crags that form the W. face
of Gillies Hill, and at a point where the line of the crags
is interrupted by a transverse gully. The remains lie
within a coniferous plantation and were partly concealed
by lopped branches at the date of visit; an accurate
survey was therefore impossible, but the accompanying
sketch-plan (Fig. 9) illustrates the main features of the

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 9. Fort, Gillies Hill (No. 70)

site. The angle formed with the crags by the N. side of
the gully is cut off from the rest of the hill by three
ramparts, which enclose an area measuring about 240 ft.

1 E.g. Torwoodlee broch (P.S.A.S., lxxxv (1950-1), 92 ff);
Dunearn Hill, ring-fort (Feachem, op. cit., 75).
2 Place Names, 59, 100.
3 Anderson, A, O., Early Sources of Scottish History, 90, 96 f.
4 Wainwright, F. T., "The Picts and the Problem", in The
Problem of the Picts, 24, etc.
5 Vol. iii (1792), 288.
6 T.S.N.H.A.S., xlvi (1923-4), 142; Smith Institute Catalogue,
61, No. 4706, AH 21.
7 History (1880 ed.), i, 373.

-- 71

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