Mither Tap Pictish Fort - Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Posted by: 
creg-ny-baa
N 57° 17.491 W 002° 31.646
30V E 528482 N 6349935
Historical information board on the footpath just below the summit of the Mither Tap of Bennachie, outlining the details of the Pictish, or Iron Age fort, that once stood there.
Waymark Code: WMYW25
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/31/2018
Views: 0
Bennachie is an area of high ground in the district of Garioch in Aberdeenshire, around twenty miles north-west of the city of Aberdeen. Its most distinctive feature is the granite tor summit of Mither Tap that dominates the eastern end of the range. The summit area once was home to a fort around the time of the first millennium, and on the well constructed footpath that heads up the eastern side of the hill, just below the summit is an information board embedded on a rock with an illustration of what the fort would have looked like.
Along with the illustration the text on the board reads as follows:
'Above you stands the impressive Pictish fort of the Mither Tap, likely constructed and occupied in the 1st millennium AD.
The huge rubble walls in front of you, surrounding the natural outcrop of rock, are the remnants of ancient fortifications.
Charcoal found here has been radiocarbon dated to between 340 and 780AD, suggesting that the fort was used during Pictish times.
The layout of the fort - an inner citadel surrounded by terraced outer enclosures - is certainly suggestive of Pictish fortification. However, it is possible that the construction of the fort began long before, in the Iron Age.
The impressive stone ramparts were probably topped by a timber palisade and a secure gatehouse. The fort was intended to display power and prestige and it is likely that a Pictish king ruled from within its walls.
Pictish culture had a distinctive visual language of graceful symbols, usually expertly carved onto stone. The Pictish fort at Burghead was decorated by numerous carvings of bulls. Could the Mither Tap have had its own symbol, perhaps one of those on the nearby Maiden Stone?
Did you know?
In the first century AD the Romans called Scotland Caledonia. It is possible that the battle of Mons Graupius - where the Romans defeated a massed gathering of Caledonia tribes, took place on the slopes of Bennachie. It was the Romans who would later give a nickname to the tribes of northeast Scotland - the Picti or "painted ones"'.