Gatehouse News
NEWS, INFORMATION & WHAT’S ON IN GATEHOUSE OF FLEET | Summer 2012
From the Editor
Welcome to the Summer Newsletter which makes a timely appearance in advance of the Gala and the Olympic Games. Apart from the richly deserved award of the MBE to David Dougan, Gatehouse of Fleet is linked to the Olympic Games by way of Gerard Macnamara’s torch bearing in Annan and Liz Scott’s selection as an official, of which we will be reporting fully in our next issue. There is some interesting new material on the Trusty’s Hill dig, and on the arrival in Gatehouse of a talented Scottish novelist. As usual, my thanks are due to Ken Smyth’s design skills, to Graham and Margaret Wright for their coverage of the Riverside Café businesss and to our many distributors who deliver the Newsletter to your door. If you live outside the reach of our door delivery, supplies are on display in the Spar and the Keystore shops. “What’s On” information is now updated regularly in the Events section of the Gatehouse website and stretches well into the future, so we would like to see more access being obtained online (so many more of us these days have computers or access to computers such as that available in the Library). In the meantime we will continue to distribute a printed version of “What’s On” to accompany each issue of the Newsletter. In our next issue we will be publishing the first of what I hope will be many profiles on local personalities. Robin Dean has kindly summarised his early life in Gatehouse for us with some vivid memories of his relationship with the formidable Betty Murray-Usher. Fresh material for the Newsletter will always be welcome! Willie McKie willmckie@aol.com 01557 815008
The Galloway Picts Project at Trusty’s Hill
Could Trusty’s Hill have been a royal stronghold of an ancient kingdom? The recent archaeological excavation has discovered striking new evidence for the lost Dark Age Kingdom of Rheged. Evidence for when the site was occupied, how it was occupied and indeed the status of the people who occupied this hill fort has been found thanks to the efforts of over 60 volunteers working alongside professionals from GUARD Archaeology and the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. An abundance of domestic rubbish, including animal bones, a rotary quern, tools and a spindle whorl demonstrate that Trusty’s Hill was once the home of a small community. There was also clear evidence, in the form of crucibles, a clay mould and iron slag, that metalworking and the production of high status jewellery was being carried out in part of the site. But the clincher for the archaeologists was the discovery of high status jewellery itself and even rarer pottery sherds from France. The pottery sherd not only dates to the seventh century AD, exactly the right time when Pictish Symbols were being carved in Scotland, but are so rare from this period that only people of the highest status - kings, princes, lords and bishops - acquired this pottery. The only other sites outside Pictland where Pictish Carvings are found are the capitals of other Dark Age Kingdoms: Dunadd, the capital of the early Scots Kingdom of Dalriada and Edinburgh Castle Rock, once called Din Eidyn, the capital of the Kingdom of the Gododdin, which covered South-east Scotland. The layout of Trusty’s Hillfort, with an upper citadel where a great hall may have stood, and lower precincts where activities like metalworking may have been undertaken, is exactly how royal Dark Age Capitals were arranged. The first results of the excavation will be given at the 150th anniversary conference of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society on 8th September. Once all the finds have been analysed a full report will be given in Gatehouse on 6th April next year. The Gatehouse Development Initiative will be working closely with the archaeologists to maximise the benefits of the excavation for the local community. For progress on the Galloway Picts Project see www.gallowaypicts.com
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