6o on antiquities in Scotland. March 14^ 



continuance, these strong holds would have been 

 pafsed by as of no avail, or at best it would only have 

 been necefsary to leave a guard sufficient to overawe 

 the garrison, and to prevent a sally from it, to sur- 

 prise them, while they were busy pillaging the coun- 

 try. 



2. The situation of these places effectually refutesf 

 the idea of their having been built for defence. Ca^ 

 ledonia abounds with high mountains, and inaccefsiblo- 

 rocks and fens, which would have been chosen as 

 tlie situation for places of defence ; for in such situ- 



' ations little art would have been necefsary to- render 

 them impregnable. But it has been already ob-r 

 -served, that these buildings are seldom to be found 

 thus situated. The castles of future times were in- 

 variably so placed. Some of these dbunes are placed 

 in the very bottom of deep vallies, as that at Duii- 

 beath, in • particular, which is so near to a steep 

 rock, that rises much above it, that a stone miglit 

 easily be thrown by the hand from it into the heart 

 of the circular area itself. No person will believe 

 that any set of men could have been so stupid as to 

 chuse.such a situation for a place of defence. 



3. There is not, within any one of these structures 

 that I have examined, the smallest appearance of a 

 well, though water is always near them on the out- 

 side ; and though it is not denied that it is pofsibh 



'welb might have been there, that are now filled up, 

 yet there is no probability that if these wells had 

 ever been there, the memory of them, by tradition, 

 would have been entirely lost. I have seen many 



