Note
Date 23 February 2015 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044117
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044117
An earthwork comprising twin concentric ditches and banks is drawn in a regular arc across the low-lying tip of Onston Point. The ditches are both about 3m broad, lying to either side of a low medial bank about 0.6m high, and the second low bank stands on the counterscarp of the outer ditch. There are several gaps along its line, but aerial photographs suggest a slight misalignment to either side of one 40m E of the W shore, perhaps indicating this is original, though the OS surveyor in 1966 suggested there was an entrance causeway near the NE shore. The roughly triangular interior is featureless and measures 130m from N to S, tapering from a maximum 80m transversely immediately to the rear of the earthwork to a point in the shallows of the loch (0.66ha). At the NE end of the perimeter, however, aerial photographs also show traces of a line of stones extending N in a straight line for a distance of at least 60m beneath the water, possibly indicating that the enclosed area on dryland was once considerably larger. The date and purpose of this promontory work are unknown.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2838
