Judicial Assembly Sites in Scotland: Archaeological and Place-Name Evidence of the Scottish Court Hill

Abstract

A NEW COUNTRYWIDE SURVEY of traditional medieval court sites in northern Britain, using place names, historical records and historic landscape analysis, has identified distinct archaeological characteristics of this widespread, though previously underexamined site type. Natural hills are revealed as the most common venue for local judicial gatherings in Scotland. Place names derived from Gaelic, Scots and English are utilised to illustrate that mounds and reused prehistoric monuments also acted as venues for court sites. Findings from several recent studies have illustrated rich and comparable traditions of legal assembly for Anglo-Saxon England, early Gaelic Ireland and Viking-Age Scandinavia. In the light of these the Scottish sites presented in this article are considered in terms of legal assembly practices derived from the late 1st millennium ad. Evidence for the continued use of court sites into the high medieval period is also discussed.