Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF)

The Perthshire village of Forteviot occupies a special place in the history of Scotland.  According the early Scottish manuscript the Chronicles of the Kings of Alba the 'palacium' of Forteviot was where King Kenneth mac Alpin, one of the first kings of a united Scotland, died in AD 858.  The 9th century AD in Scotland was a period of major social and political change with the unification of the eastern kingships of Pictland and the western kingships of the Scots into the new kingdom of Alba.  As one of the major early royal centres of this time period Forteviot plays a crucial role in assessing the complex processes that gave birth to an early medieval nation.

Archaeological traces show that Forteviot had also been a significant centre further back in time.  The fields around the village preserve one of the most extensive prehistoric ceremonial landscapes in Britain.  Aerial photographic evidence has shown the immediate area around Forteviot to have been an early prehistoric ceremonial centre.  Within an enormous timber-defined enclosure several large hengiform structures were built, each monument demanding a remarkable coordination of labour and resources.

It is the physical link within the landscape of Forteviot of these two widely separate but immensely significant episodes--the creation of a Pictish royal centre and an early prehistoric ceremonial centre-- that has prompted the formation of the SERF project.  The SERF project aims to identify features associated with the royal palace at Forteviot,  to investigate its nature and wider context and look at the long term evolution of the landscape with the aim of assessing how and why the early medieval power centre developed in this location. In this regard, investigation of the prehistoric ceremonial complex at Forteviot is key. The SERF project aims to explore what it is about Forteviot and the wider Strathearn region that created this regional centre in such different social and political situations, and whether there were connections between the prehistoric complex and the much later establishment of the royal centre at Forteviot.

Project Directors:  Prof. Stephen Driscoll, Dr. Kenneth Brophy, Dr. Gordon Noble