presents the peculiar feature of being partially constructed of logs of
oak alternating with layers of stones. The peculiarity of its dry-built
stone rampart is thus described by Dr. Macdonald:—“To strengthen it,
beams of solid oak (still measuring from 6 to 12 feet in length) take
here and there the place of stones, and similar beams inserted end-ways
pass into the mass behind.”[104] We only know the Vitrified Forts from
their greatly dilapidated ruins, and it is a legitimate object of
investigation whether any of them may yet present evidence of having
been constructed with logs and stones in the manner exemplified at
Burghead. This method of construction is characteristic of the Celtic or
Gaulish forts of France. The rampart of Murcens, on the river Lot is
constructed like that of Burghead, of unhewn and uncemented stones. In
its mass, at regular intervals, there have been laid courses of oak logs
disposed longitudinally and transversely as “binders” and “headers.” The
spaces between the logs are filled with stones, and where they cross
each other the transverse logs are fastened to the longitudinal rows by
massive iron nails. There are two rows of logs laid parallel to the face
of the wall and a little apart within its thickness, and these are
crossed at every 3 or 4 feet by logs lying transversely and extending
the whole thickness of the wall, so that their opposite ends appear in
its exterior and interior faces. This is repeated at every 3 or 4 feet
of the height of the wall. The same method of construction, with a
greater proportion of timber to the mass of the wall, appears in the
fort of Impernal, also on the river Lot.[105] It is obvious that by the
application of fire to ramparts constructed on this principle, a
partially scorified and partially vitrified appearance would be given to
their ruins.[106] In the early annals the burning of fortified places
appears as the common method of reducing them, and the legendary
prophecy of the coming of Birnam Wood to Dunsinnane possessed a
peculiarly fateful meaning if its walls were built not of stones alone
but of stones and logs.
-----
Footnote 104:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. iv. p. 350. A section and elevation of
the rampart showing the oak-beams in position are given in Plate IX.
of the same volume.
Footnote 105:
Memoire sur les ouvrages de fortification des Oppidum Gaulois de
Murcens, d’Uxellodunum et d’Impernal situes dans le department du Lot.
_Congrès Archeologique de France_, xli. session. Paris, 1875, p. 427.
Footnote 106:
The late Mr. Ramsay, Director of the Geological Survey, records a
circumstance which has an obvious bearing on the question of the
possibility of such vitrifaction. Near Barnsley, in Yorkshire, the
country affords no good material for road-metal the sandstones made
from the debris of granitic gneiss pounding up rapidly under
cart-wheels. "To obviate this defect the following process is
adopted:—The stone being quarried in small slabs and fragments is
built in a pile about 30 feet square and 12 or 14 feet high, somewhat
loosely; and while the building is in progress brushwood is mingled
with the stones, but not in any great quantity. Two thin layers of
coal about 3 inches thick, at equal distances, are interstratified
with the sandstones, and a third layer is strewn over the top. At the
bottom, facing the prevalent wind, an opening about 2 feet high is
left, something like the mouth of an oven. Into this brushwood and a
little coal is put and lighted. The fire slowly spreads through the
whole pile and continues burning for about six weeks. After cooling,
the stack is pulled down, and the stones are found to be vitrified. I
examined them carefully. Slabs originally flat had become bent and
contorted, and stones originally separate glazed together in the
process of vitrifaction."—_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. viii. p.
150.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 251.—Section of Hill-Fort of Dunsinnane, showing
underground chambers within its area. (Not to scale.)]
The Hill-Fort of Dunsinnane (a section of which is shown in Fig. 251) is
an oval circumvallation crowning the summit of a conical hill, some 800
feet in height. The rampart is now chiefly composed of earth intermixed
with boulders, and is in some places about 20 feet wide at the base,
rising to a height of from 6 to 8 feet. Fragments of vitrified matter,
cementing masses of small stones together, are found in the rampart. The
space enclosed is about 150 yards long by 70 yards wide and almost
level. Towards its south-east side were two underground chambers 20 feet
in length, from 6 to 8 feet in width, and 5 to 6 feet high. The chambers
communicated with each other, near their extremities, by two passages
low and narrow, not much exceeding 2 feet in width and 3 feet high. The
floors of the chambers were paved with rough slabs. The walls were built
with undressed stones, which at the height of 2 to 3 feet above the
floor began to converge until the roof was spanned by flagstones laid
across. The floors were covered with ashes and refuse, consisting
chiefly of the bones of horses and cattle, and horns of deer. A quern
was found by the side of one of the passages, and in another were parts
of three human skeletons. Near the entrance to the circumvallation a
bronze spiral finger-ring, described as of exquisite workmanship and
formed like a serpent, was found.[107]
-----
Footnote 107:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. ii. p. 95, and vol. ix. p. 379.
-----
Dunsinnane is the only Scottish hill-fort associated with underground
chambers. But there is a class of underground structures of peculiar
form which is common in Scotland, though unconnected with any variety of
defensive structure. They are mostly situated in arable land now under
cultivation, and have usually been discovered by the plough coming in
contact with the stones of the roof.
[Illustration: Fig. 252.—Ground plan and sections of Earth-house at
Broomhouse, parish of Edrom, Berwickshire.]
One was so discovered at Broomhouse in the parish of Edrom,
Berwickshire. It had been known before and most of the roofing stones
removed, but on this occasion it came under the observation of Mr.
Milne-Home, who communicated an account of it to the Society of
Antiquaries.[108] It is to such casual circumstances that we owe the
materials of our science. The structure presents the form (shown in the
ground plan, Fig. 252) of a long narrow gallery, entering by a low and
narrow aperture nearly on a level with the surface, widening and
deepening from the entrance inwards, turning first sharply to the left
and then to the right, and terminating in a closed and rounded end. The
opening (A) faced nearly to the south-east. The whole length of the
gallery, measured along the central line of the floor, was 30 feet, its
width at the entrance 2 feet, and at the widest part 6 feet. Only three
of the roofing stones (B,C,D) remained in position. The vertical height
of the walls at the widest part of the structure was 5 feet, and under
the roofing stone (B) next the entrance only 3 feet. It seemed as if the
floor had been paved with natural water-worn stones, but this point was
not clearly ascertained. At the second bend (D) there are checks for a
door, consisting of two oblong stones set on end and still carrying a
massive lintel. The side walls, from the entrance inwards to this inner
door, are vertical. In the wider part of the structure (E) beyond the
inner door they are brought towards each other by the stones overlapping
inwardly, so that the roof might be covered by single slabs laid across.
Nothing was found within it but fragments of bones of animals, among
which the roe-deer was the only one that could be certainly determined.
-----
Footnote 108:
_Ibid._, vol. viii. p. 20.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 253.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Migvie,
Aberdeenshire. (From a plan by Mr. Jervise.)]
At Migvie, in Aberdeenshire, an underground structure (Fig. 253) was
discovered in 1862.[109] It was situated in the summit of a gravel
hillock, and was in form a long, low, and narrow gallery, entering by an
aperture nearly on the level of the original surface, turning first
sharply to the left and then to the right, widening and deepening from
the entrance inwards and terminating in a squarish end slightly rounded
at the corners. The whole length of the gallery measured along the
curvature was 41 feet, the width at the entrance 2 feet, and at the
widest part about 5 feet. Nine stones covering the portion next the
entrance remained in position, the height of the gallery under them
increasing from about 2½ feet at the aperture to 4½ feet at the place
where the covering ceased. The vertical height of the walls beyond this
seemed to have been at least 5 feet. The side-walls were built with
rough boulder stones laid pretty regularly. When the interior was
cleared out the only objects found were a bronze ring, several rude
stone-vessels like roughly-formed cups, large quantities of ashes and
charred wood, and corroded fragments of iron implements.
-----
Footnote 109:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. v. p. 304.
-----
[Illustration: Fig. 254.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Buchaam, in
Strathdon.]
The similarity of these two structures is no less striking than the
excessive peculiarity of their distinctive features. These features
are—(1) their position under ground; (2) the contracted entrance; (3)
the form of the chamber—a long, low, narrow, and curved gallery
gradually widening inwards; and (4) the construction of the chamber—with
convergent side-walls supporting a heavily-lintelled roof.
Closely analogous to these in its main features is the underground
structure (Fig. 254) at Buchaam, in Strathdon.[110] It is along narrow
gallery entering by a small aperture in the narrow end nearly on a level
with the original surface of the ground, gradually widening and
increasing in height inwards, and terminating abruptly in a
slightly-rounded end. It differs in one respect from the two previously
described, inasmuch as though it is curved it has not the double
curvature which is the special feature of their form. It curves sharply
to the left, but the curvature is not repeated in the opposite
direction. It is 58 feet in length following the curve along the middle
line of the floor. Its width at the entrance is 3 feet 6 inches, and it
gradually widens until it attains a maximum breadth of 9 feet 3 inches.
The height increases from about 5 feet near the entrance to about 7 feet
at the farther end. The roofing stones were mostly in position and were
of great size, some being 7 to 8 feet in length, 3 feet in width, 18
inches in thickness, and weighing more than a ton. The walls rise
perpendicularly for 2 or 3 feet and then incline inwards with a curve,
so that where the width of the chamber at the floor is 9 feet 3 inches,
it is contracted to 7 feet 9 inches at 4 feet above the floor and at the
roof to 5 feet. The walls are well built, the lower courses of large
cubical stones, undressed, and at the distance of about 12 feet inwards
from the entrance there are checks for a door formed of two oblong
stones set edgeways in the wall and projecting a few inches from its
interior surface. The whole floor of the chamber was paved, and a drain,
10 inches square, well built with a good roof, sides, and bottom, and
having a peculiar box-like opening or sink in the inside of the chamber,
was found leading from its south-east corner. The chamber when opened
was nearly filled with earth and rubbish, and at the bottom there was a
layer of fine blue clay 20 inches in depth, which had been carried
through the walls by percolation of water from the clay bank outside. In
or below this clay which covered the paved floor were found the
following relics of human occupation—an iron ring, and an object in iron
which looked like the shoe of a wooden spade, some staves of a small
wooden cog, a wooden comb, some fragments of pottery of coarse
workmanship, a portion of a quern or handmill for grinding grain,
fragments of deer’s horns, and bones of the sheep and common domestic
fowls. At one corner of the inner end of the chamber the ashes of a fire
remained, and immediately above them there was a well-built smoke-hole.
-----
Footnote 110:
Described by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. iv.
p. 436.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 255.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Culsh, parish of Tarland.
(From a plan by Mr. Jervise.)
]
A similar structure (Fig. 255) at Culsh, in the parish of Tarland in the
same county, differs from this one only in being curved to the right
instead of to the left. It is 47 feet in length and 2 feet wide at the
entrance, the width increasing gradually to about 6 feet at the farther
end. The walls are partially formed of large boulders set on end or on
edge to form the lower course, with rudely-built masonry over them. They
converge but slightly, and the roof is formed in the usual manner by
large heavy slabs laid across from wall to wall. The floor is formed of
the natural underlying rock, and the height from floor to roof increases
from 5 feet near the entrance to an average of about 6 feet farther in.
When cleared out in 1853, the earth which filled the chamber was found
largely mixed with ashes on the floor, and the only relics obtained from
its excavation were fragments of coarse unglazed pottery, a large bead,
the bones of cattle, and two querns.
[Illustration:
Fig. 256.—Ground plan and sections of Earth-house at Kildrummy,
Aberdeenshire.
(From a Plan by Mr. Lumsden of Clova.)]
]
Another (Fig. 256) excavated a few years ago at Clova, near Kildrummy,
also in Aberdeenshire,[111] differs from these in being so slightly
curved to the left as to be almost straight. It measures 57 feet in
length, 2½ feet wide at the entrance, suddenly widening to about 8 feet
at about 20 feet within the entrance. At a short distance from the
entrance there were checks for two doors about 8 feet apart. The
covering stones had been removed from the first 15 feet of the narrow
part, but the roof remained entire over the whole of the wider part of
the structure, at an average height of about 6 feet from the floor. The
earth with which the chamber was filled was largely mixed with charcoal
and bones of animals, among which those of the horse and dog were
recognised. No manufactured relics were found, but two of the stones in
the walls, one being a large boulder, were covered with the small
hemispherical pits known as cup-markings.
-----
Footnote 111:
_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. xii. p. 356.
-----
[Illustration:
Fig. 257.—Ground plan and section of Earth-house at Eriboll,
Sutherlandshire.
(From a Plan by Dr. Arthur Mitchell.)
]
An Earth-house at Eriboll, in Sutherlandshire[112] (Fig. 257), resembles
that at Clova in presenting so little curvature as to be almost
straight. The curvature which it has is to the left, and only extends
for a few feet within the entrance. It is said, however, to have been 10
or 12 feet longer than it was when examined in 1865. It was then 33 feet
in length. It is peculiar for the smallness of its size, being nowhere
more than 4½ feet in height, and for the greater part of its length only
2 feet wide, expanding to 3½ for about 3 feet only from the inner end.
In view of this feature of its character, Dr Mitchell remarks that it is
exceedingly difficult to see what purpose such a structure could have
served; but he adds that it is worthy of note that in this district
similar underground constructions are not rare, and that they are called
by a Gaelic name which signifies Hiding-beds. The use of such
underground places of concealment is referred to in the _Saga of Gisli
the Soursop_, which relates to events occurring between the years 930
and 980, and was written in Iceland about the beginning of the twelfth
century. It states that when Gisli was outlawed and every man’s hand was
against him, he went to Thorgerda in Vadil “She was often wont to
harbour outlaws, and she had an underground room. One end of it opened
on the river-bank and the other below her hall.” Again it states that
“Gisli was always in his earth-house when strangers came to the
isle.”[113] The form of Earth-house thus described as then in use for
concealment in Iceland is not the form of the Earth-houses found in
Scotland, which have rarely two openings, but the passage is interesting
because it shows that the traditional use ascribed to the Scottish
examples is a use which was practised among a people who had close
relations with the district in which the tradition still remains
attached to these structures.
-----
Footnote 112:
Described by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. vi.
p. 249.
Footnote 113:
_The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw_, Dasent’s Translation, p. 72.
-----
But whatever may have been the actual purpose or purposes to which they
were applied, the fact which is of importance in our investigation is
that these Earth-houses, though ranging in area from Berwickshire to the
north coast of Sutherland, are all of one special character, long, low,
narrow galleries, always possessing a certain amount of curvature,
sometimes greatly, and at other times doubly curved, always widening and
increasing in height from the low and narrow entrance inwards, usually
built with convergent walls and roofed with heavy lintels, which are
always lower than the surrounding level of the ground, so that the whole
structure is subterranean. Occasionally they present variations in
structure as in the case of one at Murroes, in Forfarshire, which,
instead of being built, has its walls constructed entirely of flagstones
set on edge. Similarly, the example at Kinord, in Aberdeenshire (Fig.
258), has its walls constructed of single boulders set on edge or on
end, and it presents the further peculiarity of the chamber being
divided into two branches at the farther end. One at Pirnie, in the
parish of Wemyss, in Fife, and another at Elie, had steps leading down
to the entrance.
[Illustration: Fig. 258.—Ground plan and sections of Earth-house at
Kinord, Aberdeenshire.]
Occasionally they occur in considerable groups, as at Airlie, in
Forfarshire, where there is a group of five. One of these is of great
size, its length being 67 feet, and its average breadth, from the
farther end to within about 12 feet of the entrance, 7½ feet. The height
at the entrance is only about 22 inches, and the floor slopes down for
about 20 feet till a height of about 6 feet is obtained. The walls are
built of rough undressed boulders laid in pretty regular courses, and
they converge from a width on the floor of a little over 7 feet to about
4 feet at the roof. The covering stones are of great size, many of them
7 or 8 feet in length and 4 feet wide. It contained the usual traces of
cookery in the accumulation of ashes and bones of animals upon the
floor. The only other relics found in it were a brass pin, a stone
mortar-like vessel, and fragments of querns. The other four examples in
the same neighbourhood are known to have existed, but have neither been
measured nor described.
A still more remarkable group was brought under the notice of the
Society in 1816 by Professor Stuart of Aberdeen. They are spread over a
space of a mile or two in diameter on what was then a dry moor in the
parishes of Auchindoir and Kildrummy, in Aberdeenshire. These excavated
houses, he says, are most frequently discovered by the plough striking
against some of the large stones which form the roof. The only opening
to them appears to have been between two large stones placed in a
sloping direction at one end, and about 18 inches asunder. Through this
narrow opening one must slide down to the depth of 5 or 6 feet, when he
comes to a vault generally about 6 feet high, upwards of 30 feet long,
and 8 or 9 feet wide. The floor is smooth, as if of clay, and the sides
are built of rude undressed stones without cement. The walls bend
inwards to form a rude arch, and the roof is covered with large stones 5
or 6 feet long, some of them being over a ton in weight. The whole
structure is beneath the level of the ground and quite invisible, but
many of them were detected by the existence close to them of a square
space about 10 to 15 paces each way dug a foot or two deep with the
earth thrown outwards. These he conjectures to have been the sites of
the summer huts of the people, who retreated to these underground places
in winter, and stored their provisions and concealed their valuables in
them all the year round. But he adds that no article of furniture, and
no utensils or instruments either of stone or metal have been found in
them so far as can be learned, but only a quantity of wood-ashes and
charcoal, chiefly at the farther end, where there sometimes appears a
small aperture at the top as an outlet for the smoke. The whole number
discovered in this locality he estimates at between forty and fifty.
They are found, he says, in other localities, but so great a number
collected in one place has probably never before occurred. The number is
certainly very large, and may probably be over estimated, but it would
not be difficult to find in other parts of Scotland, and specially in
Aberdeenshire, a series of groups of similar structures which, though
not so numerous or so closely aggregated, are so distributed over wide
districts as to show that the custom of constructing these underground
edifices was general and prevalent. Wherever they occur they present the
same individuality of character and the same strongly marked typical
features. Their range in area extends from Berwickshire to Shetland.
They occur in greater or less abundance in most of the counties
bordering on the east coast. A few doubtful examples only are recorded
in those bordering on the west coast. But it is only of late years that
the importance of securing a permanent and exhaustive record of such
casual discoveries has begun to be recognised, and in this direction of
defining the areas of the respective types of structural antiquities, we
are still groping in darkness on the threshold of a great investigation.
[Illustration: Fig. 259.—Ground plan of Earth-house at Cairn Conan, near
Arbroath, Forfarshire. (From a Plan by Andrew Jervise.)]]
I now proceed to notice a few examples which, by their associations or
their contents, disclose indications of the period of the type.
In the spring of 1859 an underground structure of this type (Fig. 259)
was discovered on the farm of West Grange of Conan, near Arbroath,
Forfarshire. It occupies an elevated situation on the south-east slope
of an eminence commanding an extensive view. The structure differs from
all those that have been described, inasmuch as in addition to the long,
low, narrow, and curved gallery widening and increasing in height from
the entrance inwards, which is the typical form, it presents the
additional feature of a circular chamber (A) attached to the long curved
chamber near the narrow end, and also communicating with the surface by
a passage (C C), thus giving to the composite structure a second
entrance. The main chamber or gallery is 65 feet in length along the
curvature of the central line of the floor. Its entrance is 2½ feet
wide, and apparently little more than 18 inches high. It widens but
slightly, till at a distance of 20 feet from the entrance there is an
offset formed by a large stone set at right angles to the passage,
beyond which it widens more rapidly to about 8½ feet across at the
farther end. The walls are built of undressed stones, but in some places
they are partially cut out of the soft rock, which, for a considerable
portion of its length, also forms the floor of the chamber. The circular
chamber (A) is about 10 feet in diameter and 7½ feet high. The floor is
partly excavated in the underlying rock. The walls are rudely built of
undressed boulders. They converge almost from the floor, and the
covering stone was a large boulder resting on the circular apex of the
vaulted roof which impeded the plough and thus led to the discovery of
the structure.