Field Visit
Date May 2000 - June 2000
Event ID 1037385
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1037385
This fort occupies the flattish, heather-grown summit of Barmekin Hill. Previous interpretations have seen at least two phases of fortification here, the earlier comprising an outer system of three close-set ramparts, and the later an inner circuit of two concentric walls, which blocked three of the five earlier entrances (Feachem 1966, 72; 1977, 104).
However, as a result of the survey undertaken by RCAHMS in 2000, it is clear that the outer scheme comprises no less than four ramparts, the fourth lying beneath the supposed outer wall of the inner fort. This outer wall, however, blocks at least four of the entrances in the outer ramparts, all of which correspond to original gaps in the innermost wall, and the fifth has been obscured by the trackway that is thought to have served an observatory set up in 1822 to track the planet Venus. This relationship with the four entrances implies that the outer wall is of relatively late date, and probably confirms antiquarian opinion that it was built in the 17th century with stone robbed from the inner fort to enclose a plantation on the summit of the hill (Stat. Acct., xii, 1794, 620-1, note). No trace of the observatory was seen at the time of survey.
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC, IP) May-June 2000.
