Alternative Names Dane's Dyke
Site type EARTHWORK
Canmore ID 35355
Site Number NO60NW 5
NGR NO 6324 0984
Council FIFE
Parish CRAIL
Former Region FIFE
Former District NORTH EAST FIFE
Former County FIFE

Canmore Mapping
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Archaeological Notes

NO60NW 5 6324 0984 to 6353 0945.

(Name: NO 6336 0966) Danes Dike (NR)
OS 6" map (1919)

The Danes Dike is a bank or wall extending from the farm of Craighead south-eastwards right down to the foreshore.
At one time the north end terminated at a rock in the north face of which is Constantine's Cave (NO61SW 6).
It is built of flat stones, without cement, and is grass-grown. Part remains as a bank or wall about 4ft high and averaging about 10ft 6 ins in width, and part, somewhat lower, serves as the foundation of a farm road. The work originally cut off the whole promontory of Fife Ness and is popularly ascribed to Danish invaders.
RCAHMS 1933; J Mackinlay 1862

From NO 6324 0984 to NO 6338 0962 Danes Dike is a grass-covered bank, 4.0m wide, retained on both sides by a vertical wall, probalbly of comparatively recent construction, that on the NE being 2.0m high and that on the SW 1.0m. A sunken farm track runs along the top.
From NO 6338 0962 to NO 6353 0945 the bank is reduced to a platform of unsurveyable height along the edge of a field, still with a farm track along the top.
At the SE end the bank curves to the east, where it joins the old raised beach. Towards the NW it disappears beneath Craighead farmbuildings and a golf course.
Visited by OS (DS) 15 October 1956

No change.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 27 August 1968

NO 634 097 (centre) During a watching brief by Headland Archaeology Ltd of the construction of a new golf course at Balcomie, Fife Ness, three prehistoric sites were discovered and excavated. In addition a section on the E side of Dane's Dike was recorded. The development occupied an area of some 35ha to the S of Craighead Farm. In addition to the sites mentioned above, a series of pits were encountered.
Dane's Dike section (NO 6327 0980) In connection with the installation of irrigation for the golf course, a section was cut up to the edge of the revetting wall on the E side of the dike. The section showed a lower dark brown layer with traces of charcoal, interpreted as a buried ground surface. This was overlain by a wedge of yellow-brown mixed gravel, interpreted as redeposited till, into which the Victorian revetting wall was cut. This layer may represent material having slumped from the dike, indicating that it was mainly built from subsoil which was gathered from either side. There was no trace of a ditch in the areas opened up on either side of the dike.
Sponsor: Crail Golfing Society.
M Dalland 1996

NO 6323 0985 A power cable trench, approximately 1m wide, was machine-excavated across parts of the Danes Dike, a linear earthwork and scheduled ancient monument. The work was monitored by Headland Archaeology Ltd.
In the S facing section, fragments of what are considered to represent surviving elements of the Danes Dike were identified and recorded. The dike appears to have comprised a solid stone core, roughly 3.4m wide, overlain with redeposited natural sands and gravels. No buried soil was evident beneath the feature, the dike having been erected directly over the natural subsoil.
The tentative identification of the stone-cored feature and overlying gravel upcast as the remains of the Danes Dike runs counter to the results of a geophysical survey which have advocated a course to the SW of Craighead farmhouse.
Outwith the scheduled area, a large pit was located in the W facing side of the cable trench at approximately NO 6332 0985.
Sponsor: Crail Golfing Society.
C Lowe 1997

NO 6320 0983 Observation of a narrow machine trench, excavated to receive a new foul water drain and connecting man-hole, revealed a deep profile with many large stones overlying a broken surface of road tarmac. This indicates that much of the upstanding dyke in this area is of recent build. However, this layer of road material overlay a concentration of large boulders located towards the centre of the trench. These may represent the same feature observed in a similar trench reported in 1997 (DES 1997, 35). If so, then it seems reasonable, with the same tentativeness as the author of that report, to identify a stone-built linear feature surviving at the core of the present dyke.
No dating material or artefacts were recovered.
Sponsor: HS.
L Roger and R McCullagh 2004

Dalland, M (1996b) 'Craighead Golf Course, Blacomie, Fife Ness (Crail parish). Mesolithic shelter, Neolithic/Bronze Age pits, Iron Age and Dane's Dike', Discovery Excav Scot
Page(s): 46-47

Lowe, C (1997g) 'Craighead Golf Course, Balcomie, Fife Ness (Crail parish), Danes Dyke, watching brief', Discovery Excav Scot
Page(s): 35

Mackinlay, J (1862c) 'Account of "The Dane's Dyke", an ancient camp at Fife-Ness', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol.3
Page(s): 209