Note
Date 18 February 2015 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044183
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044183
This castle occupies a precipitous promontory on the cliffs S of Old Wick and there is no evidence that it overlies an earlier fort. Nevertheless, the similarities with a series of promontory works on the Caithness and Sutherland coasts, where there are traces of rectangular buildings behind the defences has led to its inclusion here. The defences comprises a ditch about 8.5m in breadth by 3m in depth barring the approach from the landward side, immediately behind which there is a stone keep guarding the only possible access across a causeway on the NW side. To the rear of the keep ranges of building extend for a distance of about 50m along the margins of the promontory to either side of a central roadway, which stops at what appears to have been an enclosure, possibly a garden about 20m short of the seaward end of the summit, which overall measures 85m from ENE to WSW by about 22m transversely (0.18ha). Beyond this the ground descends in a series of steps down to the rocks above the sea.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2827
