Building

The National Monuments Service's description

Within a large enclosure (KK023-058001-). Orpen (1909, 320-21) provides an extent of lands, ‘of Joan, Countess of Gloucester and Hertford, taken in 1307, the jurors say that there are within the manor of Dunfert “Within the enclosure one hall, one chamber, one dairy, one grange, one bretage beyond the gate, and other wooden houses”. They also mention “a dovecote,” perhaps at the same spot’. He describes this monument as, ‘a very large circular fort surrounded by a deep ditch and inner bank. There are traces of a rectangular tower (?) [KK023-058002-] and other buildings [KK023-058003-] on the bank, and of a wall dividing the fort diametrically’. He goes on to describe the adjacent smaller enclosure (KK023-057----) which is c. 20m to the NE and continues, ‘I conjecture that this is the bretage of the Extent of 1307, and that the large outer fort, perhaps the original Dun Fearta, was utilized as the enclosure for the buildings mentioned’.
A field inspection (16 May 1997) of the large enclosure (KK023-058001-) does not mention the buildings described above by Orpen.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 18 August 2021