Note
Date 4 May 2015 - 18 October 2016
Event ID 1044509
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044509
The site of this fort is revealed by cropmarks on the crest of a sinuous ridge of glacial gravels and sands overlooking the A9 carriageway at the apex of the first major westward meander in the River Tay N of Perth. Roughly oval on plan, with a hollow forming a shallow re-entrant in the N flank of the ridge distorting the shape a little on this side, the interior measures about 95m from ENE to WSW by 50m transversely (0.3ha) within a multivallate defence which is most clearly defined to either side of the entrance on the NE, where no fewer than four ditches are visible. The third of these ditches appears to be an enhancement of the defences adjacent to the entrance, petering out into the re-entrant on the N, but traces of the other three ditches extend along this side, and the two inner ones certainly complete the circuit around the SW and SE. The ill-defined character of the cropmarks in these other sectors may have obscured other entrances, though there was possibly a gap in the circuit on the W, and another in the second ditch on the W, immediately N of the point where the third ditch apparently turns inwards to flank its S side; if this was indeed an entrance, it is blocked by the inner ditch, suggesting some depth to the chronology of the defences. Other hints that the defences have been remodelled on at least one occasion, can be seen in the projecting lobes on the terminals of particularly the inner and third ditches on the NE side of the entrance, which suggest episodes of re-cutting. No features can be distinguished in the interior, but the bleached outline of the wallhead of a souterrain can be detected in the second ditch on the NE side of the entrance, probably representing an occupation in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD after the defences had gone out of use.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3013
