Uncover the past and join us at Kippen dig
One of the amazing things about quiet, sleepy little Stirling is just how important it used to be.
For around 400 years after 700 AD it was the frontiers between Pictland and successor Alba and the Angles of Northumbria.
It became a no-go zone, carefully watched and patrolled but sparsely settled.
The coronation of David I in 1124 changed all that when the frontier moved to The Tweed and Stirling’s economy exploded.
But how was the frontier patrolled?
We have a tantalisingly brief mention of King Kenneth II fortifying a ford over the Forth in the 10th century but we don’t know what that meant.
From my digs (which many of you have helped with), I think that this meant lots of things: refortifying the fort in the Abbey Craig and blocking the ford at Cambuskenneth (is he the Kenneth in the name?), and also building a fort at Kippen to watch the fords at Frew.
The wee fort at Kippen is called Keir Hill of Dasher and we’ve done a couple of digs there over the last few years and can confirm it was probably an older fort built first during when the Romans where here and then refortified during Kenneth II’S reign.
It is a very important and very rare example of what 10th to 11th century forts looked like as most were rebuilt in later periods.
We don’t know what the first castle at Stirling looked like as it kept being rebuilt over the centuries as technology changed. But at Kippen we have something built just before the frontier moved and the fort was abandoned, a stranded military asset.
We’ll be digging there from May 24 to 27 and you’re all welcome to come for a look.
You can email for details: cookm@stirling.gov.uk