A complex enclosure identified by aerial photography at Dunragit
Galloway, was demonstrated by excavation to have been of Late
Neolithic date, and comprised three concentric timber ramped
post-rings, 120-300 m in diameter. The two outer post-rings each
comprised large uprights interspersed with smaller members,
probably forming a continuous palisade. Each was a single-phase
structure and the posts had rotted out. The inner ring had largely
been made up of large, free-standing posts, most of which had
rotted away, but some of which had been deliberately removed, the
post-holes being considerably larger than those of the two outer
rings. Where posts had been pulled out, a number of elaborate
deposits had been placed in the crater left by the post-removal.
The entrances to the post-rings are not aligned and the preferred
interpretation is that the monument as a whole had two phases of
construction, in each of which a timber circle was surrounded by a
palisade, and in which the middle post-ring succeeded the outer, or
vice-versa. The enclosure had been preceded by a post-defined
cursus monument in which all the post had been burned in situ and
numerous other post-holes were located on the same axis as the
cursus, extending beyond the monument itself. The most elaborate
entrance, connected with the middle post-ring, is composed of two
parallel lines of features, presumably post-holes, opening toward
the south, and aligned on a large earthen mound at Droughduil, 400
m away. Droughduil Mote, though recorded as a medieval motte,
recalls the association of various very large mounds with with
henges or palisaded enclosures, as at Silbury Hill, Wiltshire.
Excavation demonstrated that it had been constructed with stepped
sides, and that a stone cairn had been constructed on its summit. A
series of optically stimulated luminescence dates on the
accumulated sand over the surface of the mound demonstrated that it
was certainly not medieval, and was probably Neolithic in date.
General
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