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Where is Castle Law hillfort?

On the summit of Castle Law, to the west of the village of Abernethy, lie the remains of an Iron Age hillfort. Castle Law is part of the range of hills known as the Ochils, and hillforts are known to have existed on a number of the summits here.

Castle Law stands overlooking one of the most important natural routeways between inland Fife and the Tay coast, and the fort would have been at a useful vantage point when strangers were approaching.   The fort also had a commanding view over the Tay and the Earn, as well as the narrow strip of low country where Abernethy village stands, and the Carse of Gowrie, on the far side of the Tay. On a clear day, the view stretches as far as the Grampian mountains in the north.

As well as being in an excellent position for viewing comings and goings, the summit of Castle Law was ideal for a fort because of the shape of the hill. It was protected by steep, partly rocky descents on three sites, and on the fourth side, there was a small loch and marshy area, separated by an embankment, before another steep ascent.

There is one easy access route along the narrow neck from the ridge to the west.

What is a hillfort?

In the Iron Age, the hillfort was the main residence of the local king or chieftain, but was important to the whole community as it would have served other purposes as well, such as protected storage for the community and centres of trade and administration.

Hillforts continued to be used into me Early Mediaeval period, including Pictish examples in the east and north of Scotland. Only a few definitely Pictish (C.300-800AD) hillforts have yet been identified. One of these is Clatchard Craig, about 10km to the east of Abernethy, at Newburgh in Fife. This site was excavated in the 1950s and 1960s before it was quarried away, and finds from the site were dated to the middle of the first millennium AD. The finds also suggested that this had been a particularly important and high status fort, presumably the residence of a Pictish king.

It is uncertain whether the hillfort on Castle Law was still inhabited after the Iron Age, and as it appears to have been deliberately covered up at some time, datable artifacts may have been lost.   Abernethy is described in the Scotichronicon (a fourteenth-century Scottish history) as a Pictish royal and episcopal capital, so Castle Law may have been a royal stronghold at some time during the Pictish period.

Castle Law was a distinctive type of hillfort, a vitrified fort. Vitrified forts were built around 600-300BC and were formed by placing of wood within the stone walls. The walls were then set on fire, and the very high temperatures caused the materials to fuse into a vitrified mass, forming a material almost like a dark glass, which strengthened the walls. It has often been suggested that these forts had been burned by attackers, but the deliberate layout of stone and wood which can be seen at sites such as Castle Law, suggests that it is much more likely that it was done deliberately by the fort builders to make the forts stronger.

Castle Law was one of the first timber-lace stone forts to be discovered in Scotland. This practice is not known in hillforts elsewhere in the British Isles, but Caesar described the walls of Gaulish forts as being stone with wooden beams and excavation in that region has confirmed this.

The Excavations

In the late nineteenth century, two men from Abernethy village, Mr Alexander Mackie and Mr James Marr excavated the fort. They were visited in 1898 by members of the Society of Antiquaries for Scotland, who were impressed by the project, and claimed that the men "had unearthed one of the most interesting forts yet brought to the light of day in Scotland".

Before the site was excavated, there was little to indicate that there had been a fort there. The dig, however, uncovered two oval walls, one inside me other, of which the inner wall covered an area about 50m long by 25m wide.

The remains of the outer wall were less than two metres high, but it is thought that it would have originally been about three metres high.

The walls were typical of North British hillforts with the walls built not on the summit but slightly down the descent. This meant that not only was there more space inside, but assailants had to attack from a steeper position and it was easier for the defenders to mount the walls.

Within the fort, a rock cistern (which would have been used for storing water) was found, and an area of possible paving uncovered.

The fort had been covered with earth and stones, possibly deliberately, until it had appeared like a natural hill surface.

What was found there?

Amongst the items found in the fort were:

• a polished stone axe
• lamps carved out of stone, with a dip in the rim for a week;
• a polished jet ring;
• part of a jet bracelet, decorated with a cable pattern;
• a bone knife handle;
• a bronze spiral finger ring,
• a bronze fibula carved in the La Tene style (a form of Iron Age Celtic decoration)

These finds are in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh,

Further Reading

D Christison and J Anderson, 'On the Recently Excavated Fort on Castle Law, Abernethy, Perthshire' Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Vol.. 33, 1898-9