Four of Dundee’s Best Archaeological Sites and Discoveries

Dundee may be best known for jute, jam and journalism, but the city’s story started thousands of years before they arrived on the scene.

Balgarthno Stone Circle

Thought to have been constructed around 4,500 years ago, this late Neolithic/Bronze Age site in Charleston features a ring of nine stones with an internal diameter of about 8m. One of the large, slab-like stones (known as orthostats) still stands at 1.5m high.

Balgarthno Stone Circle has been known since at least the end of the 18th century (when it was referred to as “a temple, called Druidical”), but we don’t know why it was constructed or how it was used. “Very little, if any, evidence of activity” has been found around the stones, aside from part of a jet ring and a flint scraper which were reportedly discovered by Daniel Henderson “at the stone circle” in 1963-4.

The circle can be visited in the public park or explored on Sketchfab thanks to Darren Eyers FSAScot.

12 Bronze Age Cists

In the 1870s, a dozen Bronze Age cists (stone-built boxes) containing human bones were discovered in the Stannergate by workers improving the harbour.

According to Canmore, the site included many more cists which were destroyed before they could be examined. The only grave good (offering) discovered was a food vessel made over 3,300 years ago, which was also broken by one of the workers’ shovels.

It seems to have been a popular site as a much earlier Mesolithic kitchen midden (refuse heap) was also discovered nearby. The midden produced flints (stone flakes), charcoal, worked bone and “a small finely polished celt of flinty slate” which would have been discarded over 6,100 years ago.

These discoveries are a great example of why developer-led archaeology is so important today. This is archaeology undertaken to offset the impact that development (such as harbour improvements) has on our historic environment.

Dundee Law 

Dundee Law was formed by prehistoric volcanic activity and its 572-foot peak is one of the city’s most distinctive landmarks.

In addition to 3,500-year-old graves from the Bronze Age (dating to about 1,500 BC), 1,900-year-old Roman pottery (dating from the 1st century AD) and an Iron Age hillfort built over 1,600 years ago have been uncovered on the site.

A cup-shaped steatite lamp was also found during the construction of the war memorial now atop the hill and can be seen in The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum, along with a group of vitrified stones (melted to a point where they form a glass or glaze) said to be from the Law.

The Howff

The Howff is a picturesque graveyard in the heart of Dundee which charts three centuries of life and death in the city.

Established in 1564 thanks to Mary, Queen of Scots, it was chosen as a meeting place (‘howff’ in Scots) by the Dundee Incorporated Trades whose symbols can still be seen on the monuments today. After centuries of use, the overcrowded cemetery was closed in 1860 and is now home to one of the most important collections of tombstones in the country.

The Dundee Howff Conservation Group aims to preserve these memorials. In 2017, they commissioned a detailed mapping survey which recorded the positions of 1,752 burial monuments and several additional stray fragments which was undertaken by the late Dr Oliver O’Grady of OJT Heritage. A photographic and written record of the monuments was also taken with the help of community volunteers.

Their most unexpected discovery was a recycled medieval gravestone dating from the 12th or 13th century, hundreds of years before the Howff cemetery was established.

The cemetery is open throughout the day.

Want to stick to the coast for your next archaeological adventure? Dig into five seaside castles with awesome archaeology.

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Header Image: View of Dundee from The Law (Photo Credit: VisitScotland / Kenny Lam)