Top Five Archaeological Sites and Discoveries in Clackmannanshire

Clackmannanshire may be Scotland’s smallest county, but it’s jam-packed with archaeological stories waiting to be unearthed at tower houses, castles, woollen mills and more. [NOTE: Article contains images and descriptions of human remains]

Amazing Neolithic Pottery near the Upper Forth Crossing

In early 2006, Headland Archaeology led an excavation at Meadowend Farm in Kennet ahead of the construction of a road for the new Clackmannan Bridge (also known as the Upper Forth Crossing). This type of archaeological investigation is known as developer-led archaeology. Expecting to find artefacts from the medieval period, the team were surprised to uncover much older evidence for human occupation, ranging in date from the Early Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age, over 2,800 years ago.

Four Early to Middle Bronze Age roundhouses were found, as well as the earliest ring-groove roundhouse known in Scotland to date. But the most exciting discovery was Scotland’s largest and best-dated collection of Middle Neolithic Impressed Ware pottery. These 206 vessels are over 5,000 years old and can tell us a lot about the Neolithic inhabitants’ links with other communities, as many of the designs on the vessels are shared among potters in southern Scotland and northern England.

Want to see upstanding archaeological remains in the area? Visit nearby Clackmannan Tower.

An Important Burial Cist near Tillicoultry

Thousands of years ago, late Neolithic builders constructed a large stone circle on the Cunninghar, a sand/gravel ridge to the east of where the town of Tillicoultry later developed. This ancient ritual space stood for thousands of years until the stones were removed around AD 1850 and either broken up or used to cover a drain constructed nearby at Tillicoultry House; the site was further damaged when part of it was later used as a sand quarry.

Four decades later, in 1894, a teacher visiting the site noticed the rim of a large urn sticking out above the soil near the edge of the circle. It fell apart when he tried to lift it (which is one of the reasons why you should always report a find instead of trying to remove it yourself). After the pieces were carefully collected, the cinerary urn (a vessel containing cremated bones) was reconstructed and is now housed in the National Museums Scotland collections.

R. Robertson FSAScot, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (who co-ordinate Dig It!) who worked at the museum, went to inspect the site in 1895 and discovered a cist (an ancient stone-built box often containing human remains) covered with a large grey granite slab. The cover was decorated with cup and ring markings of the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age (over 3,800 years ago) and had perhaps been reused as the cist’s cover. The slab was moved after discovery and for many years it has been in the garden of the former coach house of Tillicoultry House (now demolished). Sadly, the markings – which were already difficult to see when the cist was found – have almost disappeared now after being exposed to the elements for so long.

A perfectly preserved Bronze Age food vessel was found inside the cist, along with a few poorly preserved adult human bones and teeth. It’s possible that the person’s head had been laid to rest on an animal skin (possibly a stoat pelt) as a dark red, hairy material was also found near the site of the skull. Due to the large and finely decorated cover of the cist and its position in the centre of a circle of standing stones, Robertson guessed that this was the burial of a very important person.

You can see the surviving cinerary urn and food vessels from the Cunninghar on loan in Dollar Museum.

An Iron Age Warrior from Marshill

In 1828, a Bronze Age cemetery was discovered by workers on Marshill in Alloa. More than 20 cremation urns, a cist burial, and two gold bracelets (now on display in the Early People gallery at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh), suggest that those buried in this cemetery were wealthy people of high status.

Inspired by the earlier discovery, Clackmannanshire Council’s Museum and Heritage Officer, Susan Mills FSAScot, investigated further in 2003 and found that part of the land next to the cemetery had recently been developed without any archaeological investigation. Social housing was soon to be built on the remainder of the site, so Mills was granted permission by the developer to carry out a rescue excavation to potentially uncover more finds.

Almost 175 years to the day after the original discovery, another undisturbed short cist burial was found that was presumably part of the same cemetery. The cist contained the skeleton of a young woman, an ornate food vessel dating to c.2000 BC (some 4,000 years ago), and a small copper alloy awl (a small pointed tool used for piercing holes, especially in leather).

But that’s not all. Two days later, Mills discovered a much longer stone-lined cist not far from the first. This was directly in the way of the main access route into the site and needed to be excavated quickly, so Historic Scotland (now Historic Environment Scotland) funded a rapid rescue excavation carried out by Paul Duffy FSAScot, then Forensics and Human Remains Officer with G.U.A.R.D. What they uncovered was hailed at the time as one of the most significant Iron Age finds for decades in Scotland.

This second cist contained a skeleton, identified as that of a younger adult male, wearing a belt with a sword scabbard attached. The sword itself may have been laid on his torso, and his hands may have been arranged to hold the blade. A spear, glass bead, copper alloy pin, two copper alloy toe rings and eight rings probably associated with the belt and scabbard were also found in the grave. It’s thought that the man was around 25-35 years old when he died and would have been an important figure in his community to receive such an ornate burial. Mills said: “the Alloa warrior burial is remarkable. Such richly furnished graves are very rare in Scotland and this remains one of the few to have been recovered in a controlled excavation”.

What’s particularly fascinating is the date of the burial. Based on the finds inside, it was provisionally dated by Dr Fraser Hunter FSAScot of National Museums Scotland to around 100 BC – 100AD (some 1,900 to 2,100 years ago); initial radiocarbon dating of the skeletal remains supports this view, and means that the man was buried at least 1,500 years later than others in the Bronze Age cemetery. Is it possible that the site was a place of special significance for the people of Alloa for many thousands of years?

Ready for some more Alloa archaeology? Don’t miss Alloa Tower (below).

A Rare Sword Find from Harviestoun

This impressive iron sword was discovered by workers digging a drain behind Harviestoun House near Tillicoultry, probably in AD 1796.

Almost 30 inches long with the point missing, the sword is thought to have been used over 900 years ago (between AD 800 and 1100) and is of a kind that were almost certainly made and used in early medieval England.

However, as National Museums Scotland researcher Dr Adrián Maldonado notes, we do have depictions of similar swords on Pictish stones, like at Aberlemno in Angus, so they may have been used further north:

“We also know that the Vikings really liked these swords. There are several examples of [these types of] swords in Viking graves, including one from Machrins, Colonsay. Another similar example, but not from a grave, is from Torbeckhill (Mein Water), Dumfriesshire, which is of the same type and is also a rare stray find.”

We can’t be sure who wielded the Harviestoun sword (there are problems with assigning ethnic labels to weapons) – it could have been someone from England, a Viking or a Pict. According to Dr Maldonado, “given the date of the Harviestoun sword, there is a slight possibility it could have been used around the time of the Battle of Dollar between Picts and Danes in AD 875, but that’s pure speculation.”

The sword is now on display in the Early People gallery in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Want a day out closer to home? Check out the Japanese Gardens at Cowden less than 10 minutes drive from the sword’s findspot.

Traces of an Aristocratic Home at Alloa Tower

With its tremendous 11ft thick walls, Alloa Tower is the country’s largest surviving keep and one of the most important structures of its kind in Scotland.

It was originally built as part of a line of structures defending the north shore of the Firth of Forth. A structural survey of the tower in the early 1990s dated the original fortified structure to the early 14th century (600 years ago), with further alterations taking place over the next two centuries, until the tower as it stands today was finished.

King David II granted the Alloa estate to Sir Robert Erskine in AD 1363 and the family owned it thereafter. It was home to John Erskine, 6^th Earl of Mar, who was a statesman, talented amateur architect, landscape designer and the leader of the ill-fated 1715 Jacobite Rising.

Between 1988 and 1993, the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust carried out several excavations next to the tower, on the site of  the 17^th-century mansion which was, along with parts of the tower, substantially remodelled in the early 18^th century by the 6^th Earl,  though it remained unfinished when he was sentenced to perpetual exile in 1716, his lands and titles forfeited. The Erskine family bought the Alloa estate back in 1724 and continued to live in the house, until a fire in 1800 destroyed everything but the solidly built medieval tower.

The digs uncovered thousands of artefacts, including 93 fragments of mostly 17^th-century clay pipe, a George II halfpenny from 1738, late 18^th century wine bottles (possibly made in the Alloa Glass Work, founded on the Alloa estate in 1767 and still operating today), 200 year-old pottery and ceramics, and a large quantity of animal bone. Analysis of these bones seems to indicate a contrast in the diet of the nobility and their domestic staff, with the rich feasting on beef, pork, game birds, and dolphin or porpoise, and the staff subsisting on somewhat plainer dishes.

The excavations at Alloa Tower were significant for giving us insights into domestic life in an important aristocratic house in the late 17^th to early 19^th centuries. As archaeologist David Bowler said about the 6^th Earl’s mansion:

“We now have the foundations of his house, the changes introduced by those who came before and after him, and the well his ancestors used when they lived in the tower. We have the wine bottles in his cellar, and the locks and hinges that secured them. We know what he and his servants ate, and the dishes they used, on special occasions and on ordinary days, and perhaps a bench on which they sat. We have the plaster cornice that decorated the Earl’s chambers, the rats who stole his provisions and the measures taken to stop up their holes.”

In the 1990s, Alloa Tower was fully restored and visitors to this National Trust for Scotland property can now admire the opulent 18th-century interiors and climb to the top of the tower to enjoy the view.

Check out the Tower Trail Booklet to find out more about Alloa’s impressive fortresses and what makes them special, and visit the Discover Clackmannanshire website and YouTube channel to inspire your next visit to the region.

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Header Image: Castle Campbell (© Discover Clackmannanshire)