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Photo Pages: Burghead - Hillfort in Scotland in Moray
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Submitted by wiccaman9 on Wednesday, 19 December 2007 Page Views: 1562
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 Site Name: Burghead Country: Scotland County: Moray Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Elgin Nearest Village: Burghead
Map Ref: NJ107693
Latitude: 57.704600N Longitude: 3.500137W
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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   Burghead submitted by wiccaman9
3rd to 6th Century Pictish Fort. The largest known in Scotland. Occupies large promontory - though half the fort was destroyed in the making of the new village of Burghead. Originally comprised of 2 enclosures with a central platform/partition, with extensive 3 tiered ramparts to minimise landborne attack.
The village of Burghead, Moray, Scotland, is by all accounts a modern coastal village, created between 1805 and 1809. The construction of the village unfortunately destroyed half of, what is, the largest Pictish fort ever known.
The fort however is still visible – the huge ramparts and fortifications still apparent after some 1500 to 1700 years. The fort’s construction has been dated between 4th to 6th Centuries AD, and was in occupation for some 450-500 years.
Multiple excavations have occurred over the years, recreating an overall plan of 2 large walled off enclosures with a central, high partition wall/platform. A series of three sets of ramparts, with their associated ditches, exist, guarding the entrance to the fort, at the end of the natural promontory. These outer ramparts are known to have been made of rubble banks, covered with turf, reaching nearly 5-6 metres in height. Three such walls of earth and stone in close succession gave good protection, from land borne attacks.
The fort has a natural sandstone rock-base, jutting out into the sea. On top of this sandstone, walls were built to increase the overall height of the outer defences. A wooden ‘stockade’ type structure is believed to have sat on top of the outer stone walls.
The outer walls of the central fort were ‘dressed’ with numerous carved stone blocks depicting bulls. The famous ‘Burghead bulls’ are unique amongst pictish carvings. Their presence at Burghead alone has suggested that the bull was a local, tribal, totemic symbol. I would refer readers to the section on Burghead bull pictish cI stones.
Over 30 bull stones were known from excavations, but amazingly 24 stones have disappeared into obscurity, as only 6 stones are now known to exist to the present day! The British Museum, National Museum of Scotland, Elgin Museum and the Burghead Fort visitor centre now house the stones.
Each bull is circa 400mm long, carved into sandstone blocks. The bulls are solitary, and are very dynamic in the poses portrayed. They have glaring eyes, flared nostrils, swishing tails, etc
The pictish fort also encompasses two other important sites, originally found within the forts’ boundaries :-
i) The Burghead well
ii) The Clavie (on Doorie Hill)
The Burghead well was originally thought to have been a Roman shrine. This however is very unlikely. Hadrians’ wall was built to keep the Picts out of Romanised Britain – there is no existence of any major Roman activity in the area.
The well is purpose built, with 20 rock cut steps descending to the ‘underworld’, a square cut chamber being cut into the bedrock, and 1.3m deep.
The well had ritual purpose in mind, in its’ construction. The Picts, being pagan, had numerous deities including water associated gods. The Picts are known to have made sacrifices to such deities by ritually drowning people. With respect to ‘criminal justice’, drowning was also a common method employed, as depivted on some pictish stones. A stone depicting a celtic-head was found in the vicinity of the well when excavated.
The Clavie, or the ‘Burning of the Clavie’, is a modern day remnant of the pagan fire-festivals of old. Celebrated on the 11th January, it marks the ‘Auld New Year’, before the calendar dates changed in 1660. The Clavie is a half whisky-barrel, stuffed with wood and tar – set alight and carried through the streets of Burghead. Charred and burning pieces of wood are removed and distributed to people to bestow good luck for the forthcoming year.
At the end of the procession, the Clavie is carried and sat upon a chimney like pedestal – on the top of Doorie Hill.
NB: The Doorie hill is a well preserved section of the inner ramparts that guarded the entrance to the pictish fort.
The headland upon which the village has been built has certainly changed. A small light-house (now a visitor centre) and a small collection of houses sit atop the promontory. Half of the Pictish fort has been destroyed in the building of the villages' houses, yet sufficient survives to give a sense of awe, at the sheer scale of what has been described as the greatest, and certainly the largest Pictish fort known in Scotland..
A selection of photographs are included below to highlight the scale of the Pictish fort.
WHO WERE THE PICTS ?
The Picts were the ‘renamed’ descendants of the original Iron-Age people living in Scotland, their largest concentrations being in the Highlands, Moray, Aberdeenshire, and Fife, with scattered Western, Northern, and South-Western colonies.
They are a much misconstrued people, thought of by the Roman chroniclers as a warrior, barbaric nation of people. They were referred to as the ‘Pictii’ – the painted ones, on account of their tattooed bodies, bearing strange symbols. These symbols were later chiselled into the walls of caves (Sculptors Cave, Moray and East Wemyss, Fife) and later onto purpose built menhirs. Indeed little remains of the culture of the Picts other than their celtic artwork, forts, and obscure Roman refernces.
Certainly they had armies, a Navy-type sea-faring tendency, but we know little of their pagan religion, their farming structure, their language or indeed their writings.... Indeed it is no wonder that the Picts are described as being the most enigmatic of Scotlands’ people.
Aron Bowers
 Burghead submitted by cosmic
Burghead 2 (flash)
 Burghead submitted by cosmic
Rampart from Lower field to Upper
 Burghead submitted by cosmic
Outer Rampart of Lower Field
 Burghead submitted by cosmic
Burghead Lower Field
 Burghead submitted by cosmic
Burghead from Lower Field
 Burghead Pictish Symbol Stones (class I) submitted by h_fenton
Burghead bull No 5.
in the British Museum
 Burghead submitted by wiccaman9
The Burning of the Clavie
Remnant of an ancient, Pagan fire festival, carried out on the old new year date of what is now 11th January. The burning Clavie, bestowing luck to all who scavenge a remnant of the charred wood, is paraded through the streets of Burghead, before being mounted upon the Doorie Hill, the best preserved outer defence rampart of the PICTISH FORT OF BURGHEAD, - The larges
 Burghead submitted by wiccaman9
Celtic Head carved stone, found in the Burghead Pictish Well, as an offering to water deities
Aron Bowers
 Burghead submitted by wiccaman9
The Pictish well at Burghead
Aron Bowers
 Burghead submitted by wiccaman9
Entrance steps to the Pictish well, Burghead
Aron Bowers
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