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A look at
Burghead Pictish Fort, the largest 'Iron age Fort in Britain' and it's Roman
Well. |
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| Burghead
Pictish Iron Age
Promontory Fort |
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(Roman?) Well |
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By
John A. Duncan FSA Scot.
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Artists
impression of the Fort in the 4th to 7th Century |
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Who
would think visiting Burghead today that this now, sleepy fishing
village located on the Moray Firth partially conceals ‘The biggest
Iron Age fort in Britain’. Sitting on a peninsula it is easy to
see why the early picts in the 4th to 7th
century AD, would have chosen such a spot to build this very
impressive structure which covers an inner area of 3 hectares. |
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Extract
from Manuscript Map 'Pont 8' 1583 - 1596 |
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It
must have been awe inspiring for any would be assailant or visitor
approaching the fort up the promontory,
to be faced by the first of three huge ramparts and ditches, measuring
800 feet in length, with an overall depth of 180 feet across at the
neck of the headland . The exact height of the outer defences is
unknown but they were probably built of earth and rubble. It is also
thought that they may be the remnants of an earlier
defensive structure that the Picts re-used and improved.
On
passing through the single entrance of the three outer ramparts, you
would have then been faced with an inner fortification with
enclosures on 2 levels, the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’, sometimes
also referred to as the ‘Citadel' and the ‘Annex’.
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These
two internal courts surrounded by walls are also of unknown height.
The above dimensions were taken from a map that was made for General
Roy in the mid 18th century. However, an excavation by Hugh Young in the early 1890’s did show
that the remaining sand covered mound of the west rampart (near
the Coastguard Station) on the smaller court, concealed two walls
measuring 27 to 28 feet apart and 10 feet high with a rubble infill.
The wall may have had a wall walk, as timber supports were also
found and on later carbon 14 dating, this revealed a date of 340 to
680 AD, which gives us the possible dating for the fort. |
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Destruction of
the Fort is thought to have been around the 9th or 10th
century AD, but obvious evidence of remnants of the Fort must still
have been very visible for early mapmakers such as Pont, whose map
of 1583 –1596 shows a ditch across the promontory, and
another map of 1747 that shows broad bands of collapsed stonework,
indicating the fort must have been substantial and worthy of noting.
The worst devastation to the fort however was the building of the
planned Village of Burghead between 1805 and 1809, which obliterated
over half the archaeology. The outer ramparts of earth and stone
were levelled into the fort's ditches in order to flatten the area
for building work and stone and rubble were reused from the ramparts
to build the harbour.
During
the construction of the harbour over 30 symbol stones were found of
which only six remain.
These |
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| Remnants
of Burghead Fort Today |
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| Impression
of Fort Entrance |
| by
John Tasker |
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remaining stones depicting
what is now known as the ‘Burghead Bulls’ were thought to
have adorned the ramparts of the fort or possibly around the
forts gates and are thought by some to be a symbol of
strength. Of the remaining stones, which are known, Burghead 3
and 4 can be seen at the Burghead Library, Burghead 2 and 6
are in the Elgin Museum, Burghead 1 is in the Museum of
Scotland, Edinburgh and Burghead 5 is in the British Museum. |
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There
is no doubt that Burghead Fort played a dominant part in
Pictish society and must have been an important
stronghold in the North for the Picts. The fort may well
have been a ‘Pictish Capital’ of Northern Pictland. |
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© John A. Duncan
of Sketraw, KCN, FSA Scot. |
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| Acknowledgements
& Permissions: National
Library of Scotland for the use of the map, Pont 8. CFA Archaeology,
Mussleburgh, for the use of their artists impression of Burghead
Fort. Burghead Community Trust, photographs, information and advice.
RCHAMS, Canmore database for information and research. A special
thanks goes to Ken & Catherine Miller of Burghead Trust, for all
their help.
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