Note
Date 22 April 2015 - 31 August 2016
Event ID 1044351
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044351
The multivallate fort situated on the summit of Barra Hill exhibits three phases of construction, though the last phase appears to be no more than the creation of an agricultural enclosure to enclose the rigs visible in the interior with a stone-faced dyke extending round the rim of the inner rampart and blocking the entrance on the W. This sequence on the W shows that the inner rampart had already been heavily robbed in this sector, to the extent that only the dyke can be traced northwards along the crest of the outcrops on the W flank of the summit. Nevertheless, the innermost rampart and its accompanying external ditch represent the second phase of construction, pierced by opposed entrances on the E and W, and with what may be a more recent break on the N, but blocking the entrance through the outer ramparts on the S. Roughly oval, this inner enclosure measures 122m from E to W by a maximum of 95m transversely (0.92ha) within its rampart. The two outer ramparts and their ditches enclose an area measuring about 155m from E to W by 125m transversely (1.54ha), but while they present steep well-formed profiles on the SE and NE quarters, elsewhere they are largely reduced to two concentric terraces, and there is no trace of the inner at all below the outcrops on the W; lengths of a counterscarp rampart are visible on the lip of the outer ditch on the S and N. There were probably entrance at all four cardinal points though the remains of those on the N and W have been heavily distorted by later activity. Of the other two, the eastern is the better preserved, with traces of the ramparts returning around the terminals of the ditches to form a stone-faced entrance way over 15m long, and there are hints of a similar arrangement on the S also. Excavations across the defences by Murray Cook recovered charcoal samples from the primary fills of two ditches, the inner either accompanying the innermost rampart or a quarry to the rear of the middle rampart, and the outer between the middle and outermost ramparts; the former dates to 560-360 BC and the latter AD 380-580. At face value the outer defences of the multivallate fort visible in the surviving earthworks were had probably been constructed at or by the earlier date, but that there was also a much later phase of refurbishment in the early medieval period (Cook 2011; 2012).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2981
