Open or Enclosed: Settlement Patterns and Hillfort Construction in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, 1800bc–ad1000

Abstract

This article presents a synthetic précis of enclosed and unenclosed settlement in Aberdeenshire over an extended period of study encompassing the later prehistoric and early medieval periods (1800 bc–ad 1000) where the perceived boundary between prehistory and history is of limited significance. The results will then be placed in a wider Scottish context, with a brief discussion of the changing nature of enclosure within the study area.A recent upsurge in research, development, and survey work has, in particular, drawn renewed attention to a discrete cluster of around 20 hillforts in the Strathdon area, which lie well beyond Cunliffe's Hillfort Dominated Zones. In general, the settlement record is predominantly unenclosed but, in the first half of the 1st millennium bc the Strathdon area appears to reflect wider UK trends: there are relatively few hillforts and they appear to be aimed at communal gatherings. Their direct use in conflict appears to have been rare and their ‘defences’ perhaps marked a neutral zone rather than fortification. A putative increase in the volume of agricultural surplus may have led to increased social competition and eventually conflict. After c. 500 bc a variety of local factors influence hillfort design and there is an increase in their number and variability, before the emergence of a single dominant form from Northern Fife to Inverness, and then an abandonment of enclosure until the early medieval period. The current evidence indicates that hillforts were abandoned before the Roman incursions, perhaps by several hundred years and, while they may have been re-occupied, there is as yet no evidence for refortification. In contrast during the early medieval period hillforts appear to have been more actively used in both settlement and conflict. They may relate to a period of expansion amongst local competing polities and the cessation of their construction in the 7th century ad may be connected with the emergence of larger regional power structures.

A GIS-based Analysis of Hillfort Location and Morphology

“…The proposed addition of the vitrified inner fort at Dunnideer adheres to the trend of the enhancement of hillforts within the Middle Iron Age with the rise of the 'Developed' hillfort. If Dunnideer developed similarly to how it is postulated that Tap o' Noth (Cook 2013) developed then the outer fort would have been the initial hillfort phase at this site. The two phases at this site had completely different properties; the initial outer fort subtly followed the line of the hillslopes.…”

“…Whilst the viewshed results from the radii indicate that the majority of the site is visible, the viewshed results from the hillfort grids do not. According to Cook (2013), Dunnideer was in use at the same time that the inner fort at Tap o'Noth was constructed. However, this interpretation was based upon a comparison with the dated and morphologically similar inner fort at Dunnideer, which needs to be taken with extreme caution as it was with regards to Wheedlemont.…”

“…The sites have been dated to varying extents, both absolutely and relatively (Cook 2013;Gentles 1989;Harris and Hounslow 2010;Sanderson et.al 1988). This provides the writer with the ability to test the methodology within a relatively chronologically understood context, in particular to understand the visual relationships within their contemporary surroundings.…”

“…Two radiocarbon dates were retrieved from this site, one of which was retrieved from some charcoal found underneath the middle rampart, this had a radiocarbon date of 1510+-30 BP (Cook 2013). The other was from some charcoal from within a destruction layer over a rampart and this had a radiocarbon date of 1580 +-30 BP (Cook 2013).…”

Storm damage at Craig Phadrig hillfort, Inverness

“…A recent upsurge in research, development and survey work has provided increasing evidence for the reoccupation of forts in northeastern Scotland during the early medieval period. Although the mid-1st-millennium ad TL date from Finavon should probably be dismissed as unreliable (contra Harding 2004: 88), recent work by Cook (2013) in Strath Don, Aberdeenshire, has shown the reoccupation of forts there during this period to be significant. Cook suggests that during the early medieval period, the regional variation of hillforts and smaller numbers of larger sites is connected with either discrete, contemporary political units or functional/chronological differences (Cook 2013: 344-5).…”