Note
Date 16 April 2015 - 4 November 2016
Event ID 1044340
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044340
Crathie Point, the large headland due E of Findlater Castle, is cut off on the SSW, landward, side by two lines of ramparts and ditches. The inner cuts off an area measuring 170m from NNE to SSW by a maximum of 90m transversely (1.25ha), though this includes the flanks of the promontory sloping down to the cliff-edge; the more easily occupied summit area is in the order of 0.47ha. The outer encloses a much bigger area measuring 230m in overall length by up to 135m in breadth (1.8ha), though again the more level summit area is rather less, probably extending to about 1.12ha. The inner or northern rampart is up to 7.5m in thickness, by 0.5m in height externally and 1.5m internally, and is flanked to either side by ditches about 3m in breadth. The outer line, which lies at the edge of the cultivated field 50m to the S, is also some 7.5m in thickness but only 0.3m in height and was probably accompanied by a ditch on its S; this rampart can be traced for a distance of about 50m across the promontory from the W, the line of its probable ditch being carried on eastwards from the corner of the field by a natural gully. A gap between the cliff-edge on the W and the end of the rampart probably marks the position of an entrance, while a causeway across the ditches at the E end of the inner defences also marks an original entrance. There is no evidence to indicate whether the two lines of defences are contemporary.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 04 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2957
