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Note
Date 9 March 2016 - 15 November 2016
Event ID 1044300
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044300
The remains of Ormond Castle may stand within the remains of an earlier fort enclosing the whole of the summit of Ormond Hill, which forms the low NE spur of Wood-hill. The margin of the summit area all round the hill is defined by a pronounced lip, from which the ground falls away steeply on all sides, along the SE flank some 60m to the W shore of the Moray Firth, but elsewhere between 5m on the SW to 20m on the N. This lip probably marks the line of the rampart of the fort, though it has been roughly adopted by walls enclosing outer wards of the castle, the core of which is rectangular on plan and lies eccentrically across the centre of the fort. Thus defined, the fort measures about 130m from NE to SW by 45m transversely (0.45ha), and at the NE end the rampart was accompanied by an external ditch with a counterscarp bank, while a little further down the slope another arc of ditch with an external bank can be seen; the inner of these can be traced as a terrace some way along the NW and SE flanks. If this is indeed an earlier fort, no structures relating to its occupation are visible beneath the ruins of the later castle and the position of the entrance is unknown, though a track obliquely mounts the SE flank from saddle on the SW.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 15 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4218
