Fortress rampart identified
Dig reveals ‘fragment of forgotten kingdom’
A vitrified fort once stood on Stirling’s Abbey Craig near where the Wallace Monument stands today.
The fort, once occupied by ancient Britons, dates from around 500AD.
The site – which sits just below the footpath above the wooden carving of the monument – was first discovered in the 1700s, but last month a group of 12 volunteers led by Stirling Council archaeologist Murray Cook carried out an excavation of the site.
Mr Cook said the work has confirmed the presence of an outer rampart, 20ft from the Wallace Monument, doubling the size of the fort’s area to 4000sq metres.
He pointed out: “The excavations at Abbey Craig have revealed a precious fragment of one of the key strongholds of a nearly forgotten kingdom.
“Just as Wallace stood here to resist the English so too his ancestors stood here to resist the Angles, the Picts and the Vikings. The fortifications at the Abbey Craig are of national significance and we have just doubled their extent.
“We found a burnt in situ post from the timber internal structure and vitrified stone, proving it has been set fire to and that the fire had been maintained for days, sufficient for the internal temperature to reach in excess of 1000 degrees so that the stone melted and fused.”
Mr Cook said the fort would have been destroyed when the Angles invaded the area in the seventh century and was likely redefended around 900AD against the Vikings.
He added: “From the collapse of the Roman Empire, a variety of small kingdoms emerged who fought and killed to gain control, or to prevent the loss of control, of these kingdoms.
The Picts, Scots, Angles, Saxons, Britons all spoke different languages and were rivals. The Vikings cut a bloody gash through all these peoples.”
The fort’s outer rampart had first been identified by Christian MacLagan, who is thought to be Scotland’s first female archaeologist, in the mid 19th century.
The Stirling woman is also thought to have identified a broch, a 2000-year-old fortification, in the Livilands area in 1872, the only known urban broch in Scotland.
However, as a woman she had been denied full membership of Scotland’s oldest archaeological body – the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Her key paper on the broch was only accepted because it had been transcribed by a man.