Note
Date 11 March 2015 - 31 May 2016
Event ID 1044295
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044295
This small fortification stands on a precipitous boss in open moorland on Ashie Moor. Comprising two eccentric enclosures, the inner on the summit is roughly circular on plan, measuring about 30m in diameter (0.07ha) within a thick wall that has largely collapsed over the edge of the cliff forming the ESE flank of the boss. Elsewhere it is reduced to a mound of rubble up to 3.8m thick, in which the line of the outer face is visible, in places standing 0.6m in height. This inner enclosure, however, lies eccentrically within an outer defence that is best preserved where it crosses the spine of the boss on the SSW, but can also be traced along the crest of the rocky NW flank to return to the cliff-edge on the other side on the NNE, thus enclosing an area measuring about 80m from NNE to SSW by 33m transversely (0.25ha); on the SW this wall is of a similar scale to the inner, again with its outer face visible amongst the rubble. The entrances through both walls lie on the SSW. Traces of a third wall were noted by Alan Ayre of the OS in 1974 after heather burning, following the leading edge of a terrace some 7m further down the slope on the SW, below which on the NW a ditch with an external bank has been cut into the foot of the slope along NW flank of the boss. The only features visible within the interior are a relatively modern shelter built into the innermost wall and a possible well, shown on the plan drawn up by Ayre within the summit enclosure, but in 1943 identified by Angus Graham between the inner and outer walls on the NNE. The relationship between the inner and outer enclosures is unknown.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2894
