The fort was designed to make good use of the natural defences.Dunadd is one of the few places referenced in early histories. It’s always a compromise, I can see that… but part of me wishes that we didn’t have to make it.Thank you, Colin! The work has been done exceptionally well, and after all the original footprint is still there, in its original spot. Dunadd, (Gaelic Dún Add, 'fort on the [River] Add') was the location where Gaelic kings were inaugurated in a ceremony that symbollically married them to the land. Obviously the people who hide the stone couldn’t have been left alive to retrieve it! There’s one rumour that the monks at Scone gave Edward I a stone cover from a cess pit. Love the photos and love your writing style – a magical mix of facts and your own observations, ideas and musings! Dunadd. Kilmartin Glen is one of those extraordinary landscapes where you really feel as if you’re making contact with the past.Nicely put together, enjoyed haveing a look, always wanted to go, maybe this summer, like the pictures too! In the distance, the woods and salt marshes stretch away towards the Firth of Lorn.I am very grateful to Dr David Dorren for sending me this wonderful photo from 1962, which was taken when he visited Dunadd with the Dunoon Scouts. Dunadd Fort was once an imposing stronghold of the Kings of Dál Riata. The last mention of the stone at Teamhair is 1019,3 years after the death of Brian MacCennedi. Yes, I know what you mean about the original stone. The surviving rock art along the glen is remarkable for the number of elaborately carved outcrops, the style of and extent of the carvings, and their close association with other prehistoric monuments. Fantastic. Within a couple of hundred years their power began to wane and they fell under the control of Northumbria and the Picts. Dunadd Hill Fort Fact File Worksheet.
!On a flat slab of rock just below the summit a footprint is carved in shallow relief. I can fully appreciate the decision, because no one wishes to see a unique part of Scotland’s heritage being worn away. To me, the footprint looked small enough to be a child’s, although records say that it’s approximately a size seven. I was there in January, when the low sun helped in picking out the details of the carving. Yes, Kilmartin is very special – you can feel it, but you can’t really put it into words.The fortifications at Dunadd were wrapped around the summit of the hill in successive layers so that visitors must have had the impression of progressing through three or four distinct tiers before they gained the king’s presence. Increasingly we are able to decipher Pictish ogams.The issue is that they are using Sengaeilge/Old Irish, mixed in with Brythonic (similar to Welsh) ,and even Old Norse (as at Bressay – Shetland,which is now fully decipherable). When the preservation experts checked it in 2009 they were happy with the condition of it, according to a news report.Another great article Jo! It certainly wasn’t ever in Ireland,and definitely not at Teamhair. I had read that about Scota or Scotia, but I didn’t know about the genetic research – I will be looking that up now!