Kemp Law Dun is a

vitrified fort Vitrified forts are stone enclosures whose walls have been subjected to vitrification through heat. It was long thought that these structures were unique to Scotland, but they have since been identified in several other parts of western and northe ...

dating from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

situated near the town of Dundonald in South Ayrshire, Scotland. The remains of the

fort or

dun A dun is an ancient or medieval fort. In Ireland and Britain it is mainly a kind of hillfort and also a kind of Atlantic roundhouse. Etymology The term comes from Irish ''dún'' or Scottish Gaelic ''dùn'' (meaning "fort"), and is cognat ...

lie on the old Auchans Estate in the Dundonald Woods near the site of the old Hallyards Farm and the quarry of that name. The footpath route known as the Smugglers' Trail through the Clavin Hills from

Troon Troon is a town in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about north of Ayr and northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Troon has a port with freight services and a yacht marina. Up until January 2016, P&O ope ...

to Dundonald runs passed the ruins of the dun. Kemps Law is in the order of two thousand years old.

History

The place-name 'Kemp' is found elsewhere in the south of Scotland, such as at ' Kemp's Castle' on the

Lugar Water The Lugar Water, or River Lugar, is created by the confluence of the Bellow Water and the Glenmuir Water, just north of Lugar, both of which flow from the hills of the Southern Uplands in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Course Source to Cumnock Th ...

near Auchinleck Castle and at Kemps Castle near

Sanquhar Sanquhar ( sco, Sanchar, gd, Seanchair) is a village on the River Nith in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, north of Thornhill and west of Moffat. It is a former Royal Burgh. It is notable for its tiny post office, established in 1712 and con ...

in Dumfries and Galloway. The antiquarian John Smith in 1895 visited Kemp Law and gives the place-name as meaning as 'battle hill' or 'warrior's grave'. He quotes a local as telling him "''That's whaur th' brunt th' folk lang sine''" and he speculates that after the dun was abandoned as a fortification it was used for

cremation Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre is ...

s and over the centuries this would have resulted in the observed

vitrification Vitrification (from Latin ''vitreum'', "glass" via French ''vitrifier'') is the full or partial transformation of a substance into a glass, that is to say, a non- crystalline amorphous solid. Glasses differ from liquids structurally and glasses po ...

.Smith, page 120 He dismisses the suggestion that the site was used as some sort of beacon due to its low lying position.Smith, p.119 A number of other ancient fortifications are present in the area such as those at Hillhouse,Love, p.226 Wardlaw Hill Fort Hillfort (NS35923276), Dun Donald Hillfort (NS36363451) and Harpercroft Hillfort (NS36003252). The scant remains of the chapel of St Mary and its associated holy well were still visible circa 1879 when Archibald Adamson visited Hallyards Farm. The chapel is thought to have been associated with

Dundonald Castle Dundonald Castle is situated on a hill overlooking the village of Dundonald, between Kilmarnock and Troon in South Ayrshire, Scotland. Dundonald Castle is a fortified tower house built for Robert II on his accession to the throne of Scotlan ...

Structure

Kemp Law Dun, Dundonald Woods, South Ayrshire, Scotland

The

lies in a well defended position on a minor ridge, but the site has been much disturbed and robbed of stone for building drystone dykes, etc. At Smith's time in the 1890s some stones were to be seen lying around and some of these were vitrified. On the northern side of the enclosure Smith identified a mound of stones, some eight feet in height. The walls of the dun were in a ruinous state and it was clear that no lime mortar had been used in its construction. Thorbjorn Campbell refers to the mound as being formed from 'rubbish' and identifies an enclosing wall that runs round the edge of the promontory.Campbell, p. 197 The stone walls are thought to have had timber interlacing and it is suggested that the deliberate burning of this timber resulted in the process of

that supposedly strengthened the walls. James Paterson recorded the presence of a fosse or ditch on the west facing side which was not well protected by a steep declivity like the others sides. The fort was circular with a hollow passage covered with sandstone flags through which a person could crawl on hands and knees. This passage ran right round the structure. A find was made here of an ear-ring like piece of iron, four inches in length. This artifact was exhibited at the Ayr Mechanics' Museum, still attached to a piece of vitrified stone.Patterson, p.435 By 1863 the fort had been robbed and was just a mound of rubble covered with vegetation. In 1891 Christison recorded the remains of a possible entrance on the east facing side of the fort. Dane Love records that the dun was 36 feet across internally and the internal walls were circa 14 feet thick. Circa ten feet from these internal walls are the remains of a second defensive wall. The mound may have formed as a result of stone robbing.Canmore Kemp Law Dun
/ref> In one area the wall was found to be vitrified on the external face for half its thickness. A shale pin head was found here in 1963, similar to one found at

Traprain Law Traprain Law is a hill east of Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, It is the site of a hill fort or possibly ''oppidum'', which covered at its maximum extent about . It is the site of the Traprain Law Treasure, the largest Roman silver hoard ...

Vitrification

It is not clearly understood why or even how the stone walls were

vitrified Vitrification (from Latin language, Latin ''vitreum'', "glass" via French language, French ''vitrifier'') is the full or partial transformation of a substance into a glass, that is to say, a non-Crystallinity, crystalline amorphous solid. Glasses ...

. Extreme heating has been shown to weaken the structure and an act of destruction seems unlikely given that the walls to be vitrified would need carefully maintained fires for a lengthy period. Deliberate destruction following capture of the site or some form of ritual destruction by the ruling chief as an act of closure at the end of its useful life are other possibilities.

Etymology

The name "Kemp" is derived from

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

''kempe'' and from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''cempa'', meaning "warrior, knight, fighter or champion". A kemp in Scots is a hero or a champion of great strength, and "Kemp" is a name applied to many hillforts, mottes, etc. throughout Scotland. The word ''

'' denotes a kind of

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

. The term originates in

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...

as ''dùn''. This style of fort is linked to the Celts from around the 7th century BC. The ramparts of duns were typically made of stone and timber with two walls, an inner and an outer. Vitrified duns are the remains that have been set on fire, resulting in some of the stones' melting and binding together. The word ''law'' is derived from the

word ''hlāw'', meaning "hill".

References

;Notes ;Sources *Adamson, Archibald. ''Rambles Round Kilmarnock''. Kilmarnock : Dunlop and Drennan. *Campbell, Thorbjørn (2003). ''Ayrshire. A Historical Guide''. Edinburgh : Birlinn. . *Christison, D. (1891) ''The Prehistoric Forts of Ayrshire''. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. *Love, Dane (2003). ''Ayrshire : Discovering a County''. Ayr : Fort Publishing. . *Paterson, James (1863–66). ''History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. Vol. III - Cunninghame''. Edinburgh: J. Stillie. *Smith, John (1895). ''Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire''. London : Elliot Stock.

External links