Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016620
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016620
This group of monuments lies on the rounded top of Black Hill (290 m OD) from which there are panoramic views over the Clyde Valley. The earliest feature on the hill is a large bronze-age round cairn situated on the highest point; it has been reduced to a grass-grown mound, 18m in diameter by 0.9m in height, with several kerbstones visible on the west. Surmounting the cairn there is an Ordnance Survey triangulation pillar which is used as a control point in the preparation of OS maps. These pillars are normally situated in prominent positions and so are frequently found associated with hilltop archaeological sites.
Many of the forts described in this book are multiperiod with the ramparts of the various phases piled up on one another; in this case, however, the earliest fort has been built to enclose the entire summit of the hill, while the later settlement has been tacked on to the south side of the fort, so the interiors of the two sites do not overlap. The oval fort is comparatively large, measuring I55m by 108m (1.67 ha) within a single stone wall which is now so mined that it is no longer possible to detect any original entrances. Abutting the south side of the fort there is a settlement, defended for the most part by double banks with a medial ditch but, on the north, the wall of the fort has been incorporated into the circuit. There are at least two round-house sites in the interior, lying on the west immediately north of the entrance, and what may be others just to the south of the fort wall.
Without excavation it is impossible to tell how long a gap (if any) existed between the occupation of the fort and that of the settlement but it is possible that the fort belongs to the earlier part of the iron age, while the settlement is likely to date to its later phases. The reason for the shift away from the summit, however, is not hard to guess, and must be related to the exposed nature of the hilltop and a desire to live on a slightly more sheltered section of the hill.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
