Note
Date 29 January 2015 - 13 December 2016
Event ID 1044136
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044136
This fortification occupies a large heart-shaped promontory forming the E side of Holm Bay, and is connected on the NW to the shore by no more than a narrow ridge of eroded till rising above the beaches to either side. The promontory is girt with cliffs all along its N and E flanks, though on the S a grass-grown slope gives way to a broad expanse of eroded outcrops. The scale of the defences is unclear, for there is little sign of a stone wall where the ground rises up from the neck, though there is evidently a thick bank extending along the lip of the promontory on this flank and round onto the S; the slope below the bank along the S side is studded with stones, but exposures of the core of the bank at the W tip and on the NW indicate that it is largely earthen, and, unusually for a promontory fort, it can be traced around most of the margin. The area enclosed describes a V on plan, with its apex on the W, and measures 92m in length both from NE to SW along its northern arm, and from E to W along its southern arm (0.3ha). It is largely occupied however by the grass-grown footings of a series of rectangular buildings, at least one of which has been a very substantial structure, and also a series of associated enclosures. The impression is that perhaps this is in its present configuration not a prehistoric fort, but rather a medieval or post-medieval stronghold.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 13 December 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2765
