Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Scheduled Maintenance Notice
Please be advised that this website will undergo scheduled maintenance starting on Thursday, 30th January at 11:00 AM and will last until Friday, 31st January at 10:00 AM.
During this time, the site and certain functions may be partially or fully unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Note
Date 20 April 2015 - 18 October 2016
Event ID 1044344
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044344
This small fortification is situated on a low hillock that projects from the slope NE of Pittodrie Home Farm to capitalise on the steep slopes falling away on the N and more particularly the E, where there is also evidence of minor quarrying. On the surface the fortifications comprise a single rampart and ditch overlain by a heavily-robbed, circular, stone-walled building measuring about 20m in diameter within a wall 2.5m in thickness. Excavations by Murray Cook (et al 2007; 2008), however, have revealed that the traces of what appears to be an internal quarry scoop to the rear of the rampart on the W is the remains of an inner ditch with an internal rampart enclosing an oval area measuring about 35m from E to W by 29m transversely (0.08ha). Adjacent to the entrance on the S, the outer ditch is up to 5m in breadth by 0.5m in depth, reducing to slighter proportions around the steeper N flank, and the rampart forms a bank 3.5m in thickness by 0.5m in height, but on excavation these proved to be 3m wide by 0.75m deep and 4m thick by 1.6m high respectively, while the inner ditch measured 2.2m in breadth by 1.1m in depth and the inner rampart 2m in thickness by 1.5m in height. Apart from evidence of non-ferrous metalworking, a piece of early medieval decorated glass and a glass bead, there are three radiocarbon dates from contexts below and above the inner rampart, and beneath the wall of the circular internal building, all of them falling in the range of AD 410-640. Secondary rectilinear structures were identified in the trenches in the interior.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2962
