Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1016502
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016502
Two defensive episodes have been identified on this most spectacular hillfort which is, at 563m OD, the second highest in Scotland (after Ben Griam Beg in Sutherland, at 620m). The larger, and possibly earlier, enclosure covers a massive 21 ha and consists of an outwork, a stony all with a core of boulders, running round the break of slope on all but the steepest south-eastern side. At least 145 platforms have been found within this enclosure, as well as substantial tracks. The platforms are most numerous on the north-east and north-west sides. Although some of the larger ones are on the more southerly slopes, the concentration on the north side may be the result of the prevailing wind. It is presumed that many of the platforms (at least near the upper fort) must be quarries; nevertheless, the existence of any hut sites at this altitude and their relative remoteness from good agricultural land suggest a date no later than the early first millennium BC, before the climate deteriorated. The site is, however, formally undated, although three glass beads and other late iron-age finds came from very close to this lower enclosure.
The upper fort consists of a truly massive wall, vitrified extremely heavily in places, enclosing a rectangular area 105m by 40m. When the wall was excavated in 1891, it was found to be from 6m to 8m wide at the base and to rise to 3.5m in height. The cistern, at the south end of the fort, was found to be 2.2m deep. The severe vitrification could only have been produced by substantial quantities of timber and brushwood; once alight the fort must have been visible as a glowing beacon for days. It is not known when, or by whom, this great work, at once of defence and of display, was destroyed.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).
