Note
Date 12 March 2015 - 1 June 2016
Event ID 1044296
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044296
This large fort occupies the summit of Ord Hill, the ridge of high ground commanding the N side of the narrows at the mouth of the Beauly Firth opposite Inverness. Irregular on plan and roughly following the contours of the hill, it measures about 265m from NE to SW by a maximum of 110m transversely within a wall that forms a mound of rubble some 6m thick where it is best preserved on the relatively easy line of approach along the spine of the ridge on the SW. Elsewhere its line is more difficult to follow, but can be traced intermittently around the whole summit, though nothing is currently visible of the stretch of massive vitrifaction noted in 1957 by RCAHMS investigators towards the SW end of the SE flank; according to George Anderson writing in 1824, small fragments of vitrifaction could also be found along the line of the wall on the opposite flank (Anderson 1857). There is at least one entrance at the SW end where the ground falls away sharply along the SE flank of the hill, and additional protection is provided by a thick outer wall spanning the ridge. Alan Ayre of the OS suggested there had been a third wall here, but no trace of this was found in the course of a more recent survey drawn up in 2011 by Headland Archaeology; likewise a second entrance suggested by Keith Blood along the NW margin of the ridge at this end was not found. Apart from a modern marker cairn, the rough and uneven interior of the fort is featureless.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 01 June 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2895
