Culture Perth and Kinross Series

The interim results of recent excavations at an important, though neglected small hill fort controlling the strategic terrestrial route along the River Tay connecting the highlands and lowlands. Comprising a central oval enclosure with at least two very different enclosures on lower terraces, the site had for decades been lost under thick vegetation. As a result, the fort had seen only minimal survey prior to this project, which has investigated all three enclosures to establish their date and function, and which was delivered as a programme of community archaeology by Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust, Dunkeld and Birnam Historical Society, and AOC Archaeology, supported by the Heritage Fund, The Gannochy Trust and SSE. The results confirm high status, early medieval activity across the site, and suggest a well-connected royal power centre, similar to the forts at Dundurn, Dunadd or Clatchard Craig.

Nicholas Evans will present a paper that will deepen and extend the discussion he presented briefly in last year’s workshop, considering power structures in Pictland in an international context, drawing on research undertaken for the Leverhulme Trust funded project ‘Comparative Kingship: the Early Medieval Kingdoms of Northern Britain and Ireland’ led by Professor Gordon Noble.

In this paper Evans will consider the textual evidence, including later evidence from post-1100 Scotland, for early medieval Pictish power structures, analysing how this differs from or is similar to other Insular kingdoms, in particular, Ireland and Dál Riata. He will also discuss some initial results from the place-name and territorial reconstruction phase of the ‘Comparative Kingship’ project, in relation to how we can identify how local communities underpinned larger regional and regnal power structures.

Dr Louisa Campbell

Rediscovering the Antonine Wall Distance Stones

Dr Alex Woolf

Kings of Places & Kings of People: the case of Alt Clut