Note
Date 16 January 2015 - 1 June 2016
Event ID 1044236
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044236
The remains of this fortification are situated on a hillock on the W flank of Ben Chracaig, which rises up on the NE side of the bay at Portree. Rising over 10m above the surrounding ground, the summit is only easily accessible from the W, where the approach is barred by at least two strong walls to create a small promontory work. The wall of the inner enclosure has been reduced largely to a mound of rubble up to 9m in thickness by 2m in height, within which a length of the outer face of a substantial structure can be seen in the central sector. About 8m outside this wall there is a second line of defence, recorded on the RCAHMS plan drawn up in 1921 (RCAHMS 1928, 183-4, no.578, fig 261) as two concentric walls, each little more than 1m in thickness, swinging round the W flank, and the inner apparently returning back along the N flank towards the inner enclosure; these outer lines are pierced by an entrance 1.15 wide on the W close to the S margin of the hillock, but aligned NE and SW. Set only 3m apart, these are an unusual feature, and there is a possibility that, rather than being two, they represent the robbed out remains of a single massive wall. If so, this probably represents an earlier line of defence, cutting off an area measuring about 30m from NW to SE by 15m transversely (0.04ha), whereas the inner enclosure takes in an area of no more than 20m by 15m transversely (0.03ha). In essence, the latter is probably the remains of a dun inserted into an earlier fort, though there is no evidence that its wall continued round the rocky margins of the hillock. Several features are shown on the RCAHMS plan within the interior, but they are not elaborated in the description and have recieved no commentaries since.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 01 June 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2710
