Research project: The Mote of Mark
Project details: The Mote of Mark - a Dark Age Hillfort in south west Scotland
Project director: Lloyd Laing
The Mote of Mark is a Dark Age hilltop site in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Excavations in 1913 by Alexander Curle revealed a series of ramparts as well as large quantities of metalworking and occupational debris at the site. Although Curle dated the site to the ninth century AD, subsequent study and excavation radically modified Curle's account. Lloyd Laing, in collaboration with David Longley of Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, completed a full publication of the site, which was shown to have been occupied in the sixth and seventh centuries AD rather than later, and which is important for the light it has shed on ornamental metalworking in the period as well as for a wider evaluation of early medieval Scotland.
Publications
Lloyd Laing and David Longley. 2006. The Mote of Mark: A Dark Age Hillfort in South-West Scotland. Oxbow Books.