This year we’re delighted to announce that we’ll be piecing together even more chronicles (click here for even more amazing stories) from the Castle as our contribution to Visit Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022 – which asks community groups, museums, heritage sites and visitor attractions throughout Scotland, to share their stories to help uncover
“What gives us our unique sense of place and belonging.”
So to begin, our very first story takes us as far back in time as evidence so far allows – which will venture to uncover the earliest possible tales surrounding the very first known communities who would’ve lived on and around Castle Hill…

CHAPTER 1: TALES OF OUR FIRST KNOWN INHABITANTS
So to begin, our very first story takes us as far back in time as evidence so far allows – which will venture to uncover the earliest possible tales surrounding the very first known communities who would’ve lived on and around Castle Hill. The plot of this story is both fluid and solid, since it is an unfolding chain of events, dependent on how much of the past has so far been uncovered from beneath the layers of time… CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG

CHAPTER 2: THE IRON AGE HILLFORT
From early prehistory into the later medieval period, Dundonald’s naturally defensible hilltop site brings us a prime example of continued settlement and fortification. Our story now continues to the Iron Age and references the second period of known human settlement uncovered from the archaeological studies which took place here in the 1980s and 90s… CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG
This is available to see on display in our Museum

CHAPTER 3: VIKINGS, KINGDOMS AND FIRE
Chapter 3 of the Chronicles of Castle Hill takes us into the Early Historic Period at Dundonald – which appears to have continued to be a defensible hill fort – as referenced by the period of known human settlement c600AD – 1000AD uncovered from the archaeological studies which took place here in the 1980s and 90s.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG
This was a time when Dundonald came under the realm of the Kingdom of Strathclyde which was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the Britons, or the Brythonic-speaking part of southern Scotland – also known as Ystrad Clut or Alt Cluth – a Brythonic name for Dumbarton Rock, where the chief fortress of the kingdom once stood. Today Education Officer Blythe is exploring The Ulfberhth sword – which was one of the weapons which came from the latter part of this period.