Castlehill Dun is one of many duns, hill forts and brochs located in this region of Scotland. Of the duns and hill forts in the immediate area (see GC1V619 Wallstale Dun and GC1EDNC The Hill Fort) Castlehill is believed to be the best preserved. It consists of a stone wall, three courses high in places, running around the base of the rocky knoll on which the dun sits. As with the hill fort and dun on Gillies Hill, the walls circle the structure on all sides except where the hill is steepest. On the NW side of the dun is the entrance and the rest is only visible as an outer face on the west side and a line of boulders on the north. Remains of a right-angled stretch of wall encloses the access route to the summit of the knoll to the south.
“The word dun has long been applied to structures consisting essentially of a comparatively small enclosure surrounded by a proportionately thick stone wall. The name is used to distinguish works that are smaller than hill-forts but stronger than farmsteads or homesteads.”
Duns in this region appear to have been built during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD - between periods of Roman occupation either by the Picts or by Damnonian settlers who had moved in from the south when the Picts retreated after the first Roman occupation - to protect what appears to be an agricultural community (sheep bones and grinding querns have been found in the duns’ remains). Roman glass and sherds have also been found in local duns, but it is unknown if these were obtained through trade, actual Roman occupation, or post-Roman looting. In any case, “destruction evidently followed hard upon the return of Roman forces to the neighbourhood at or about 139 A.D.” as evidenced by the filling of the entrance passage with boulders.
While you’re at the cache site, be sure to check out the Bannock Burn and its cache GC325B9 next to which is a good parking area - a nice spot for a picnic or for taking off on several of the area’s trails one of which leads to The Lea Rig GC1JT2R, another to Sauchi Craig SSSI.
To get a direct view of the dun's hill go to N56º05.624 W003º59.074.