Dunning and Leadketty

In 2012, as part of the Environs Phase of the SERF Project, we shifted focus towards the wider landscape beyond Forteviot and, in particular, Dunning and its surrounding area.

Dunning Village

Leadketty Cropmark Complex

The cropmarks at Leadketty were initially recorded in 1970 by CUCAP, and regular repeat flying since 1976 by RCAHMS has revealed a remarkable complex of cropmarks across two large fields 1km to the north of the village of Dunning. Cropmarks indicate that this was the location of a substantial late Neolithic / early Bronze Age ceremonial centre, including a massive palisaded enclosure, several hengiform enclosures, a four-poster setting, multiple barrows, ring-ditches and pits, and a range of sub-circular enclosures of unknown date, one of which may be a causewayed enclosure. Leadketty is comparable to the prehistoric cropmark complex at Forteviot, 4km to the east, which was the focus of SERF excavations between 2007 and 2010.