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Castle Hill, Glen Water

Settlement (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery (Roman)

Site Name Castle Hill, Glen Water

Classification Settlement (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery (Roman)

Alternative Name(s) Castle Lowrie

Canmore ID 43675

Site Number NS53NE 6

NGR NS 5726 3887

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/43675

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

  • Council East Ayrshire
  • Parish Loudoun
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Kilmarnock And Loudoun
  • Former County Ayrshire

Archaeology Notes

NS53NE 6 5726 3887.

(NS 5726 3887) Castle Hill (NR)

OS 6" map (1968)

Castle Hill, locally called 'Castle Lowrie' is situated 1 1/4 miles NE of Darvel on the E side of the Glen Water. Its sides fall sharply into steep gullies on N and S, and over 80 ft on the W to the river. It is of an irregular circular plan, 70 by 80ft, and is detached from the field on the E by a ditch, 54ft wide and 8ft deep, measured from the top of the rampart. The outside field level is 9ft above that of the site. Excavations in 1962-3 revealed a circular timber house, 40ft in diameter, occupying the E half of the enclosed area, around the perimeter of which was a much eroded rampart of earth, stones and gravel. The house partly overlay an earlier hut, 30ft in diameter, built in the W half of the site.

The finds, all associated with the larger house, included fragments of iron and pottery (including a fragment of Samian pottery: Drag. 38), also part of the upper stone of a rotary quern, suggesting a 2nd century AD occupation date.

T A Hendry 1962; 1963; A S Robertson 1970; A G McLeod 1950

Field investigated prior to the excavations, this feature was generally as described above, except that a causeway, some 6.0m in width, was noted crossing the ditch, with traces of the rampart visible on either side of it.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Viisited by OS (WDJ) 13 February 1962

This site has been destroyed by bulldozing, apparently in an attempt to construct a trackway to the glen below. The slight promontory which it occupied is still recognisable, but only a scarred incline now leads from the higher ground on the E. This occurred some 4 to 5 years ago according to local information.

Visited by OS (JRL) 23 July 1982

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