Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 117

Review-article on the eight-volume series edited by Anna Ritchie, Exploring Scotland's heritage (1985-7), welcomed as a 'considerable achievement by all those involved'. The series clearly demonstrates the value of the Royal Commission database to a wider public as well as to academic scholarship of Inventory type; indeed both Scottish and English Commissions are responding to a changed political situation, while maintaining the integrity of their central records. The next step should be to create a national network through which bona fide enquirers can gain access to this database. The extent to which 'ESH' increased tourist pressure on sensitive sites will need to be watched.

There is a need to reassess large mounds currently interpreted as mottes in the light of the possibility that they are burial mounds. A R

A re-examination of the pottery from major sites in the Western Isles, taking into account the problems of calibration of the 14C dates and the dating of the small finds, suggests that typologies based on form and decoration are over-simplistic. (Au)

Excavation on the supposed line of the eastern terminus of the Wall at Bridgeness failed to locate any trace and implies a post-Roman context for the Bridgeness distance slab found in 1868. Early records and the presence of a major fort and vicus make Carriden a more likely terminus. A R

Dunollie is the Dun Ollaigh mentioned in early annals, and small-scale excavations revealed a sequence of structures that correlates well with the historical evidence. Within a radiocarbon date-range of the 7th-10th centuries, a bronze-worker's hearth, with moulds for stick pins, was overlain by a stone-built rampart which subsequently collapsed. A new rampart was superimposed on the old probably in the 13th century. The role of Dunollie in Dal Riata is considered, along with the social status of Argyll duns generally. A R

A rich female grave found in 1979 contained two gilt-bronze oval brooches, forty-four glass beads, a bone comb, an iron knife, whetstone, bone needle case and needles, iron sickle, bronze ringed pin, bronze buckle and strap-end, iron rivet and textile fragments. Brooches and pin suggest a late 10th century date. AR

A 16th century L-plan towerhouse set within a courtyard. A R

A few flints from a natural mound later adapted for a medieval motte. A R