- The political vacuum which followed the departure of the Roman military from Britain brought a time of unrest and upheaval. Historical sources written at that time suggest that there was widespread population movement, with the native British population augmented or perhaps even supplanted by different groups from northern England, northeast Scotland and Ireland. Archaeologists have used distinctive traits in material culture and artistic and cultural traditions to define different cultural groups which they have termed native British, Anglian (or Northumbrian), Pictish, and Norse (or Hiberno-Norse). Variation is also apparent in the types of settlement linked with these groups, supporting the possibility that there was genuine movement of people at the time, as opposed to the intermingling and widespread adoption of varied cultural traditions from a variety of sources
- As far as the native British population is concerned, there appears to be some degree of continuity in the type and character of settlement. Defended hilltop sites are still utilised, but their numbers seem to be much smaller and the size of the site potentially much larger. These sites are now represented by the ‘nucleated’ fort, defined by Toolis and Bowles (2013) as ‘a type of fortified, hierarchical, high status secular settlement that emerged in Scotland during the early medieval period’ (Toolis and Bowles 2013, 42). These important sites often occupy important strategic locations. Examples across the region include the Mote of Mark, which dominates the entrance to the port of Urr (Brook 1991, 301). Another example is Trusty’s Hill (Toolis and Bowles 2013), and it is likely that Dundonald also fulfilled such a role, although later re-use in the Medieval period has largely destroyed earlier occupation levels.
- Like their Iron Age predecessors, defensive ramparts were characteristic of these hilltop sites, but rather than encircling an entire summit, the nucleated forts tend to comprise a citadel, occupying the summit area, with the lower terraces also enclosed with their own individual ramparts. Excavations at Trusty’s Hill have revealed that the stone-rich rampart structures are often built around a timber post-built substructure. Traces of vitrification in the stonework indicated that the rampart had been burned at extremely high temperatures at some point while the timber framework was in situ, with collapse of the burnt material occurring at a subsequent point. Vitrified ramparts have been found at a number of sites in the region, including Auldhill, but in many cases it is difficult to establish whether the burning took place in the Early Medieval period or earlier, in the Iron Age (see Chapter 7 Iron Age).
- High-status nucleated forts often show a long history of occupation, which suggests periods of use during the Iron Age and the Early Medieval period. It is uncertain, however, if this occupation was continuous or not. It is though apparent that at certain high-status sites like Trusty’s Hill and the Mote of Mark, occupation continues even though the ruling elite apparently represents a different ethnic and cultural group. The nucleated fort at the Mote of Mark, for example, was occupied first by the native British population and then by the Anglians who appear to have supplanted them as political rulers in the region.
- Hilltop forts are not the only settlement form which survived from the preceding Iron Age. It is likely that the native British population continued to use the conventional roundhouse structure during at least part of the earlier part of that period. There is also evidence for re-use of some of the more specialised monumental roundhouse forms first established during the Iron Age. Duns and crannogs both show evidence of re-use during the Early Medieval period, with radiocarbon dates confirming occupation at this time recovered from Buiston, Barean Loch and Milton Loch 3. Early Medieval occupation has also been inferred from material culture finds at Dowalton and Lochlea. There is also some ambiguity over the proliferation of promontory forts that occur across Galloway in particular. These defended sites utilise natural defences such as sea cliffs or elevated river terraces, with one or more ditches constructed to protect those areas which are less well protected. 16 of these sites have been investigated by Ronan Toolis, but unfortunately dating evidence has been elusive and material culture finds also tend to be sparse. Nonetheless, an Early Medieval re-occupation of an earlier Iron Age settlement type seems quite plausible, and the lack of material culture – compared with the nucleated forts – might suggest that their inhabitants occupied a lower level in an apparently hierarchical social order.
- Against this backdrop of native British settlement was imposed a Northumbrian incursion which has resulted, to date, in the discovery of an 8th century AD Northumbrian planned settlement at Whithorn. This was laid out hierarchically. Ecclesiastical buildings and other elements occupied the higher ground, comprising a church, burial chapel and children’s graveyard. At a lower level, there was a large terrace occupied by timber buildings. Smaller timber buildings were at the base of the slope in more poorly drained ground (Hill 1997).
- The large nucleated forts like Trusty’s Hill, Anwoth and the Mote of Mark would have functioned as royal residences, whose inhabitants had access to exotic and foreign materials and who could offer patronage to skilled craftsmen such as metalworkers (Toolis and Bowles 2013, 47). Similar levels of wealth and access to exotic materials are evident at the larger ecclesiastical sites, in particular Whithorn.
- While occupation linked with the Anglian or Northumbrian tradition in part appears to have re-utilised native British sites, they also display their own architectural traditions. One particular marker of Anglian or Northumbrian high-status sites is the large rectilinear timber hall structure. Examples from across the region include one identified beneath a putative deserted medieval village at Kirkconnel, and a smaller example at Cruggleton Castle. One, however, stands above the rest in terms of the quality of the data recovered and the detailed evidence for multiple phases of occupation. This was the example from Lockerbie Academy.
- At Lockerbie Academy, two successive phases of timber hall were identified. The latest. which yielded a date range of 430–620 cal AD (2σ) and a latest date of 595–670 cal AD (2σ), was interpreted as an Anglian timber hall on the basis of similarities with confirmed Anglian sites such as Yeavering in Northumberland. The later structure immediately superseded an earlier timber post-built structure, which gave an overlapping date range of 50–660 cal AD and 600–675 cal AD (2σ) (Kirby 2011 a and b). This suggested to the excavators that the Anglian hall had been built on the same site as that of an earlier British timber hall, which meant that both cultural groups utilised this particular form. This would mean that the native British population were also open to adopting new building traditions and at times moving away from the circular roundhouse tradition.
- The Lockerbie Academy rectangular timber hall measured 19m by 7m in extent with a small square annexe at the north end. Finds of fired daub from various parts of the site suggested that some of the walling – including, possibly, an internal partition – had been constructed from wattle-and-daub. Features noted which were consistent with the Anglian tradition included doorways in the middle of the long sides and the use of post-in-trench construction.
- Although palaeo-botanical evidence indicated that food had been processed and probably consumed there, the relative absence of material culture from the site suggested that it would probably have been used sporadically, perhaps as a place for meetings combined with feasting. The structure may have been equipped with timber floors which would have been swept after use, and all household items and equipment removed for use elsewhere.
- Northumbrian incursions into the region were followed a few centuries later by an influx of the Hiberno-Norse speakers who would give ‘Galloway’ its modern name. Norse and Hiberno-Norse house structures would have comprised rectilinear ‘long’ house structures, similar to those identified in Norse towns like York or Dublin. Examination of the type across mainland Scotland suggests that the character of the fabric may vary, with turf, timber and stone used variously – sometimes within the same structure- according to whatever raw materials were most freely available. Only one example of a putative Hiberno-Norse structure has as yet been identified in the region, during the excavation of the later phases at Whithorn.
- In addition to established settlement forms like the dun and the timber hall, there are some more ambiguous sites that remain as yet poorly understood. One unusual form which has been encountered on several occasions in recent years is the circular palisaded enclosure. Once thought to be a prehistoric form, several examples have now been excavated and dated to the Early Medieval period. An example excavated at Titwood in Newton Mearns in the early 2000s has now been augmented by a comparable site in South West Scotland. This was found during developer-led excavations at Montgomerie Park, where ephemeral traces of internal features were found within a palisade slot, which produced radiocarbon dates inferring Iron Age and Early Medieval (AD 770 to 980) activity on the site.
- Substantial structures like timber halls and some of the relict monumental roundhouse types like duns and crannogs are more likely to leave traces which can be recovered and interpreted by archaeologists, whether as upstanding monuments or buried features. There is, however, increasing evidence that more modest structures were also present, potentially housing the vast majority of the population. Traces of these are less likely to be found, and as such our understanding of the full range of Early Medieval settlement types, particularly in rural areas, may be limited. It is entirely possible that sites which reveal evidence of isolated industrial activity, like the metalworking sites at Glenlee and Blairhall Burn or crop-processing facilities like the corn-drying kilns identified at Hunterston North and Curragh, Girvan, may have been associated with settlement sites where no trace of the house structures has survived.