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Dunino Law

Fortified House (Period Unassigned), Nunnery (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Dunino Law

Classification Fortified House (Period Unassigned), Nunnery (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 34484

Site Number NO51SW 6

NGR NO 5425 1130

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/34484

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Fife
  • Parish Dunino
  • Former Region Fife
  • Former District North East Fife
  • Former County Fife

Archaeology Notes

NO51SW 6 5425 1130.

(Area NO 5425 1130) About 11/3rd furlongs north of Dunino Church, on Dunino Law, "the ruins of a nunnery were dug up and removed in the year 1815. The height of the walls is unknown but the structure consisted of unhewn stones cemented with mortar. The internal space was formed into two divisions, and the door fronted east".

New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845

There is a tradition that the ruins of an old building, situated on an eminence a little to the north of the church, which were removed in 1815, marked the site of an ancient nunnery. There was certainly a Capella de Duneynach (the earliest form of the name Dunino) in connection with the Priory of St Andrews in 1253, and it is quite possible that the nunnery was in existence before that time, though no record of it remains.

A H Millar 1895

"The conjecture that the remains removed from Dunino Law were those of a nunnery seems totally without foundation. The ruins are more likely to be those of a fortalice from which the hill derives its name, and in the retour of the service of Patrick Thomson as heir of his grandfather, James Thomson, in the lands of Dunino in 1699, the fortalice is specially mentioned".

J M Leighton 1840

No trace of any building is to be seen on Dunino Law. Excavations carried out in the summer of 1967 by an American amateur archaeologist found nothing significant (Mr Ballantyne, Balkaithley Farm).

Visited by OS (EGC) 26 August 1968

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