Archaeology Notes

Event ID 717287

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/717287

NT55SW 3 53250 54350.

(NT 5325 5435) Fort & Settlement (NR)

OS 1:10000 map (1981)

Fort and Settlement, Longcroft: These remains crown the nose of a steep-sided ridge which forms the watershed between two burns. They are of a complex nature and reveal two or three successive periods of construction. The earliest is a fort defended by two heavy ramparts with a medial ditch, which enclose an area measuring 320 by 280ft. Within these, and secondary to them, are two con- centric ramaparts without ditches, the inner of which encloses an area measuring 230 by 180ft. These two may not be contemporary. Inside, several enclosures and circular stone foundations testify to a late occupation, probably from the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, while a rectangular one is probably later still.

R W Feachem 1963; RCAHMS 1915, visited 1908

This multivallate fort and later settlement compirse four earth and stone ramparts with internal collapsed stone walled enclosures.

The outer rampart is strongest on the W, the side of easiest approach, where it is 6.0m broad and up to 1.2m high; there is no outer ditch. It becomes weaker around the N and S sides and is almost non-existent on the E.

The second defence is a bank 8.0m broad and 2.0m high, seperated from the first by a ditch 4.0m wide and 1.5m deep.

The third rampart is 6.0m broad and 1.5m high on the W side where it has two stone enclosures built against its inner side. It is of similar proportions on the E, where it overlies the second rampart.

The fourth rampart survives as an earth and stone bank 4.0m broad and 1.0m high on the W side and as a stony scarp 2.5m high on the E. The stony enclosure it encircles probably represent the remains of the yards containing timber huts.

There is an entrance in both the W and E sides; a gap in the N side is probably a later mutilation.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (BS) 4 June 1979

Photographed by CUCAP and the RCAHMS (1976 and 1980).