Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016982
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016982
This fort occupies the summit of an isolated rocky hillock and comprises a massive wall enclosing an area about 150 m by 36 m with a further hornwork at the east end of the ridge; the wall has been of stone with a timber framework, which has burnt with such intensity that massive stretches of vitrified rubble have been formed. Excavations carried out between 1933 and 1934 by Professor VG Childe indicated that the wall was some 6m thick and up to 4.9m in surviving height externally; the vitrification was found only at the top of the wall, extending some 2m into the wall core, perhaps because of the greater use of cross timbers in the upper part of the wall. The excavation revealed hearths and a possible oven, as well as pottery, spindle-whorls and the debris of metalworking. A deep rock-cut cistern was excavated at the east end to a depth of some 6.3m. Further work in 1966, designed to provide dating evidence for the fort, revealed carbonised planks of wood, perhaps from hut floors, analysis of which yielded radiocarbon dates showing that the fort was in use between the 8th and 6th centuries BC. The finds are in RMS, Queen Street, Edinburgh.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
