Note
Date 6 May 2015 - 3 April 2017
Event ID 1044515
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044515
This fort is situated in the tangled woodland and undergrowth that clothes the King's Seat, a craggy hill commanding the narrow exit of the River Tay from the highlands beyond the facade formed by the Highland Boundary Fault at Dunkeld. Translated by William Watson as 'the Fort of the Caledonians', its defences appear to comprise several elements descending from an oval enclosure on the summit, and are usually conceived as a citadel with subsidiary enclosures, though there is no secure evidence to sustain this interpretation. The summit enclosure measures 35m from N to S by 22m transversely (0.06ha) within the remains of what is probably a thick wall; an entrance on the N opens onto a trackway dropping down at the rear of a second wall or rampart to a lower terrace on the W. This second rampart extends along the lip of the terace before returning back up the edge of the crag on the S to the summit to enclose an overall area measuring 55m from NE to SW by 45m transversely (2.2ha). Immediately below this rampart on the W there is a flight of what appear to be three ramparts with internal quarry ditches, though curiously they seem only to block access up the very steepest slopes, petering out on the gentler ground to the N, and it is possible that these are an antiquarian confection to enhance the presence of the fort in the designed landscape of paths and walks laid out in the policies of Dunkeld House. Nevertheless, a short length of rampart can be seen on a terrace below the summit on the N, and from the foot of the outcrops on its NE another thick bank surmounted by a narrow wall loops out to take in a lower terrace below the crags to form an annexe measuring about 90m from NNW to SSE by 40m transversely (0.35ha). The modern pathway that mounts the summit via these terraces is perhaps marking the original route into the interior.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 03 April 2017. Atlas of Hillforts SC3022
