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Photo Pages: Elsick Mounth - Ancient Trackway in Scotland in Aberdeenshire
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Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Thursday, 22 November 2007 Page Views: 4152
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 Site Name: Elsick Mounth Country: Scotland County: Aberdeenshire Type: Ancient Trackway
Nearest Town: Stonehaven Nearest Village: Netherley
Map Ref: NO807945
Latitude: 57.041177N Longitude: 2.319679W
Condition:| 5 | Perfect | | 4 | Almost Perfect | | 3 | Reasonable but with some damage | | 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site | | 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks | | 0 | No data. | | -1 | Completely destroyed |
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Ambience:| 5 | Superb | | 4 | Good | | 3 | Ordinary | | 2 | Not Good | | 1 | Awful | | 0 | No data. |
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Access:| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access | | 4 | Short walk on a footpath | | 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk | | 2 | A long walk | | 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find | | 0 | No data. |
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Accuracy:| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates | | 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map | | 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map | | 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village | | 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town | | 0 | no data |
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   Elsick Mounth submitted by C_Michael_Hogan
Ancient Trackway in Aberdeenshire
The Elsick Mounth is an ancient trackway crossing the Mounth of the Grampian Highlands in northeast Scotland. Since prehistory the Caledonians, then Romans, then medievals, and finally modern day hikers have used this route to connect Stonehaven to the Dee River at the site of Normandykes Roman Camp via Netherley. (Simpson, 1928) The herein work is based upon my traversal of the Elsick Mounth in October, 2007 along with analysis of historic literature.
ROMANS AND PICTS. The Elsick Mounth was utilized by Caledonians, Romans and later by Picts of the Early Middle Ages: both for troop and goods movement. The Roman legions established a chain of very large forts at Ardoch, Strageath, Inchtuthil, Battledykes, Stracathro and Raedykes, taking the Elsick Mounth on the way to Normandykes, before going north to Glenmaillen,. Pursuant to theories of Roy, (Roy, 1793) Surenne, (Surenne, 1827) Watt, (Watt, 1985) myself and others, the Elsick Mounth may have been an important avenue for military maneuvering leading up to the Battle of Mons Graupius. The Romans chose the Elsick Mounth to avoid treacherous bogs (Portlethen Moss, Red Moss and the Burn of Muchalls) and the ubiquitous coastal haar at the coastal Causey Mounth; correspondingly the Elsick Mounth avoided the circuitous higher elevation marches that would have been required in use of the Cryne Corse or Cairnamounth routes. Raedykes Roman Camp itself lies along the Elsick Mounth on high ground to communicate with the Roman fleet, (Hogan, 2007a) as the view from the Elsick Mounth north of Raedykes illustrates.
The earliest recorded note of the Mounth itself was to delineate its position as a principal division of southern and northern Picts in reference to the slaying of the Pictish King Dubhtolargg. (Skene, 1880) Dubhtolargg was king of the cismontane Picts and was slain in the year 682 AD.
MEDIEVAL TIMES. The first official note taken of the significance of the Mounth as a geo-political divide was in 1305 AD in the reign of Edward I, when the Mounth was set as the political divide of northern versus southern spheres. (Act, 1305) The first appearance of Elsick Mounth survives on a 14th century map. (Simpson, 1928)
GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT. The southwest-northeast trending mountain landform of the Mounth combined with the Dee River have been the major constraints of transport from the fertile Scottish Lowlands to the north. (Hogan, 2007b) A number of passages through the Mounth were discovered and developed to facilitate troop movement and eventually serve as drovers' roads; of most local relevance the Causey Mounth comprised the coastal crossing, while the Cairnamounth and Cryne Corse Mounths allowed traffic inland of the Elsick Mounth. The location of these mounth crossings served as a determinant for many siting decisions of ancient fortresses including Raedykes, Normandykes, and the castles of Aboyne, Crathes, Muchalls, Durris, Fordoun, Kindrochit and Kildrummy.
CURRENT SITUATION. Although the lands over the highest part of the Mounth crossing would have been covered by dense deciduous forests in ancient and medieval times, the present day setting is a monocultural coniferous forest use. Since clearfelling is being practised over extensive areas of the Elsick Mounth within the Durris Forest, the biodiversity and aesthetics are greatly reduced from that of the native forest type.
REFERENCES
* W. Douglas Simpson (Dec. 10, 1928) ‘'The Early Castles of Mar'‘, Proceedings of the Society: 102
* William Roy (1793) ‘'The military antiquities of the Romans in Britain'‘
* Gabriel Jacques Surenne (1827) ‘'Letter to Sir Walter Scott'‘
* Archibald Watt (1985) ''Highways and Byways around Kincardineshire'', Stonehaven Heritage Society
* C.Michael Hogan (2007a) ''Raedykes Roman Camp'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham
* William Forbes Skene (1880) ‘'Celtic Scotland: A History of Ancient Alban'‘, vol i. page 302, Edmonston & Douglas
* C. Michael Hogan (2007b) ‘'Causey Mounth'‘, The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham
* Act. Scot. Parl. (1305) vol. i, page 120.
(The above content is original work of C. Michael Hogan prepared for the Megalithic Portal)
 Elsick Mounth submitted by C_Michael_Hogan
Within the Bruntyairds Wood of the Durris Forest, looking west-southwest along the Elsick Mounth somewhat south of the summit of the Mounth pass.
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| "Elsick Mounth" | Login/Create an Account | 2 comments |
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Re: Elsick Mounth (Score: 1)
by C_Michael_Hogan on Wednesday, 20 February 2008
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Under "ROMANS AND PICTS", in line 4 the correct spelling is "Glenmailen" not "Glenmaillen". | [ Reply to This ]
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Re: Elsick Mounth (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, 13 October 2009 | | You don't actually say where it ran from, nor where it ran to. The article seems to mention very little about the track itself, yet it's called "Elsick Mounth". | [ Reply to This ]
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