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Gallows Law

Cist (Period Unknown), Motte (Medieval)(Possible)

Site Name Gallows Law

Classification Cist (Period Unknown), Motte (Medieval)(Possible)

Alternative Name(s) Gardyne

Canmore ID 34657

Site Number NO54NE 6

NGR NO 57317 49216

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/34657

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

  • Council Angus
  • Parish Kirkden
  • Former Region Tayside
  • Former District Angus
  • Former County Angus

Archaeology Notes

NO54NE 6 5729 4921

(NO 5729 4921) Gallows Law (NR)

Cist found 1900 (NAT)

OS 6" map, (1971)

Gallows Law is the remains of a gravel knoll, in which a cist was found, set on the west end of a ridge and isolated by a trench.

The knoll was 8.2m by 5.4m by 2.1m high in 1899, but as a result of gravel-digging only a 2.0m wide sector remains on the east. The trench is c.0.3m deep and 4.0 wide.

The cist was found in 1900 and contained a skeleton (information from A Lyell, Gardyne Castle) but otherwise nothing is known of it.

Visited by OS (JLD) 13 June 1958.

D Christison 1900.

As described.

Resurveyed at 1/2500

Visited by OS (RD) 13 May 1966.

Activities

Field Visit (3 May 1957)

MOTTE, GALLOWS HILL. (cf. P.S.A.S. xxxiv, 49).

As the sketch in the Note Book shows, practically all this motte has been destroyed by former quarrying. It stands at the end of a glacial ridge of the same length and breadth as the plantation shows on the O.S. map, its top being only 9 ft. above the top of the ridge. Viewed from the ridge-top it looks perfectly motte-like, and too rectangular to be natural, but there is now no indication of the ditch shown on Proceedings Fig. 3 (p. 48) and the second level in the quarry face exhibits no sign of tip-layers - the gravel and sand of the kaim appearing to be undisturbed. It may, of course, have been a natural knoll adapted for use of a motte , but it would be helpful to be able to link it to some specific documentary evidence.

RCAHMS, visited 3 May 1957

573492 xxxix SE ("Mote")

Field Visit (March 1978)

Gallows Law, Gardyne NO 572 492 NO54NE 6

The flat-topped knoll that forms the W end of Gallows Hill, a narrow gravel ridge, may have been a motte. The knoll was once isolated from the ridge by a ditch measuring 4m wide and 0.3m deep, but this is no longer visible, and the summit of the knoll has been quarried away.

RCAHMS 1978, visited March 1978

(Christison 1900,49-50)

Note (1978)

Gallows Law, Gardyne NO 572 492 NO54NE 6

A cist containing a skeleton was found in a prominent knoll called Gallows Law, which forms the W end of a narrow gravel ridge.

RCAHMS 1978

Note (1980)

NO 572492 The remains of a sand and gravel knoll in which a cist with an inhumation had been found has now been completely levelled.

J R Sherriff 1980

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