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.
Note
Date 6 January 2015 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044502
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044502
This fort is situated on the summit of Caisteal Dubh, which overlooks Balnaguard from the SW, and now lies in a clearing in extensive forestry. The main component of the fort is an oval enclosure on the summit measuring about 97m from NW to SE by 64m transversely (0.5ha) within a wall some 3m in thickness, though this has all but disappeared along the crag that falls away on the NE. In addition an annexe has apparently been added on the SW, abutting the main wall and forming a crescentic enclosure measuring a maximum of 85m in length by 26m in depth (0.22ha) within a rather narrow wall no more than 2.6m thick. Both walls have been robbed, but in 1957 the faces were still visible at various point along the circuit. On the SW and S of the annexe there is a relatively slight outer wall, the line of which is taken up towards the E by a shallow ditch. The interior of both the fort and the annexe are now featureless, and a circular structure about 4.5m across noted by Alexander Hutcheson and David Christison in the annexe has presumably been razed by the construction of a large sheepfold with stones robbed from the walls. The entrance into the fort is marked by a gap in the wall on the W immediately NW of the annexe, which itself has a possible entrance on the SE.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2666
