EAB529 - Excavation 1912 - CASTLE OF DUNDARG

Excavations were carried out by D. Fordyce between the winter of 1911 and the spring of 1912. This involved excavating the promontory fort (which Fordyce described as a probable ‘inner sanctuary’), the castle, ‘the outworks’, and the first moat (beyond the first gateway). The 1911-1912 excavations on the promontory revealed the general structure of building foundations, and three coins were recovered. Two of the coins were lion rampant, with ‘I. R.’ inscribed on the obverse, and belonged to the reign of James VI, issued in 1589. They are not copper, but billon, an alloy of copper and silver. The third coin is so defaced that it is impossible to accurately to determine its date, but it is probably a silver penny of the reign of Edward I, struck in the London Mint. A deer's horn was found on the neck of earth and rock between the Castle rock and ‘the outworks’. The 1911-1912 excavations found evidence for various buildings in the outworks, some of them probably for cattle or horses. One building near the north end seems to have been a round tower, measuring 2.44 metres in diameter. Below the foundation stones of the round tower a ‘kitchen-midden’ was uncovered containing layers of shells such as periwinkle. The foundations of the tower had been built atop of the kitchen-midden. The largest number of finds were recovered from the enclosure (between the north and south gateways of ‘the outworks’) during the 1911-1912 excavations, these included: a button, a hairpin, a bracelet, a finger ring, a horseshoe, and a smith's tongs, large quantities of potsherds, and small quantities of coal or lignite. Bones of goats, sheep, and other animals were also found, including a goat’s head and a sheep’s head. A killer whale jawbone was recovered at the north end of the outer enclosure, beside the gateway leading on to the narrow neck. An Inverness cooper coin/trade token (dated 1793), and several, decayed, large, unidentifiable coins or medals were also recovered from the outer enclosure. One of the decayed coins is inscribed with the word ‘India’. D. Fordyce suggested that other finds from the same enclosure, including balls, stone whorls, a hammer stone, and a flint borer, may relate to an early Celtic fortification of the site. Several other finds were also recovered during the 1911-1912 excavations, these included: melted lead, a small horseshoe, a piece of leather, a piece of thick rope, a steel arrowhead, a portion of a head of a spear or battle-axe, and a bullock horn.