Intermittent occupation and forced abandonment: excavation of an Iron Age promotory fort at Carghidown, Dumfries and Galloway

Abstract

Excavations at Carghidown demonstrate sporadic occupation of this promontory fort over a short period, during the late first millennium BC or early first millennium AD. The analysis of lead beads from this settlement adds support to growing evidence for copper mining in this area of Galloway at the time and suggests that the inhabitants were of some status within the local social hierarchy. The excavation also demonstrates that the site was only formally enclosed during the latter stages of its occupation and that within a year or two of this act of enclosure the ramparts were violently thrown down, the repair and construction of buildings within the settlement was abruptly halted and occupation ceased.