Green Castle is a naturally defended rocky outcrop in the village of

Portknockie Portknockie (, the hilly port) is a coastal village on the Moray Firth within Moray, Scotland. The village's name is written as Portknockies in the Old Parish Registers. This would suggest that the port's name referred to not one, but two rock ...

Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, that was occupied successively by small

promontory fort A promontory fort is a fortification, defensive structure located above a steep cliff, often only connected to the mainland by a small neck of land, thus using the topography to reduce the Rampart (fortification), ramparts needed. The oldest kno ...

s of the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and

Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...

periods. The site forms a rocky headland long and wide, surrounded by steep cliffs rising high above the sea. The site was extensively excavated between 1976 and 1982. During the

a single

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...

was built to protect the headland at its landward side. Traces of the slot created by these timbers, together with an Iron Age

sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

and pits have been excavated. This occupation period produced evidence of

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...

, including fragments of

mould A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi ...

s, furnaces,

hammerstone In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the wo ...

s and whetstones. Ard marks over the upper surfaces of Iron Age archaeological layers suggest that the site was then used for

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

before being reused for defensive purposes during the Pictish period. A new timber palisade backfilled by beach cobbles marked a first phase of Pictish activity on the site. The fort was then extensively rebuilt in the 7th and 8th centuries – possibly in response to the start of Norse raids on the northern

Kingdom of

Fortriu Fortriu (; ; ; ) was a Pictish kingdom recorded between the 4th and 10th centuries. It was traditionally believed to be located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland, but is more likely to have been based in the north, in the Moray and ...

– with a more sophisticated structure of timber-laced stone ramparts protecting a central stone hall. These defences were later destroyed by fire, possibly the result of a Viking

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

. During the 19th century the site was used for fish drying and most of the area was covered by low stone platforms.

References

Bibliography

* * {{cite web, url=https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/master/detail.aspx?refno=NJ46NE0018, title=Green Castle, Portknockie, access-date=10 October 2015, work=Moray Sites and Monuments Record, publisher=Moray Council, ref={{harvid, Moray SMR Promontory forts in Scotland Iron Age sites in Scotland Pictish sites in Scotland Archaeological sites in Moray Scheduled monuments in Moray