Excavations at the Black Spout, Pitlochry, and the Iron Age M... by David Strachan

The rubble tumble from the homestead walls was removed to reveal an interior heavily disturbed by tree-roots, but these deposits produced fragments of rotary querns, loom weights and a glass toggle, or pendant, made of re-used Roman glass. A small ditch, probably for drainage, was excavated on the outside of the E wall of the homestead. Trench 2 was extended to reveal the interior of the homestead and expose the W wall. The remains of the homestead (NN95NE3) consist of a roughly circular enclosure some 20m in diameter defined by a dry stone wall. NN 952 576 A second season of a community archaeology project was carried out in the Black Spout Wood, Pitlochry, as part of Perthshire Archaeology Month in June 2006 (see DES 2005, 117). Sponsor: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust. A noticeable shelf was built into the interior wall.Ī second season is planned for 2006 to excavate the interior of the enclosure and confirm whether or not the enclosure wall is surrounded by an external ditch. This revealed a stone-built wall, c 2.5m thick, with an external elevation made up of large boulders, with small packing stones in between, and a very different internal elevation made up of smaller blocks of coursed local stone with smaller pointing stones. The second trench (23 x 3m) was cut from the centre of the homestead and ran E across the enclosure bank. The first trench (8x3m), within the enclosure, revealed considerable tree root disturbance, although a cobbled surface was recorded. The site consists of a circular banked enclosure, c 20m in diameter two trenches were opened in order to discover the nature of the enclosure wall and assess tree root damage. A community archaeology project in May and June 2005, carried out as part of Perthshire Archaoelogy Week, involved two evaluation trenches through a later Iron Age homestead ( NN95NE 3) in Black Spout Wood, to the E of Pitlochry. It is probable that the original diameter of the homestead was c.27.0m when complete. The remainder of the wall and much of the interior has been destroyed by quarrying. Only the S half survives, as a stone wall c.2.7m thick with an outer face four courses high in the SW. The 'circular building' erroneously called a fort by Dixon, is in fact the remains of a homestead (c/f NN44SE 7). Some of the stones on the side nearest the burn have been removed but the circle is quite apparent.

The path passes through, and has partly destroyed, the NW side.

(Area: NN 953 577) This fort is about 150 yards below the Black Spout waterfall and on the top of a steep bank over-looking the burn. It is supposed to date from Edward I's reign. At Edradour, on the top of a steep den, are the remains of a circular building, 60' in diameter internally with walls about 8' thick, called the Black Castle.

Excavations at the Black Spout, Pitlochry, and the Iron Age M... by David Strachan