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Note
Date 8 May 2015 - 18 October 2016
Event ID 1044522
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044522
This fort occupies the broad summit of Law Hill W of Arnbathie. Oval on plan, it measures 154m from N to S by 90m transversely (1ha) within a heavily robbed rampart overlain by an old field-dyke that follows the shoulder of the summit. Representing the natural line of defence, where the ground falls away more steeply on all sides, but particularly on the W, this probably always formed the innermost circuit of defence, but on the N, where access was easiest, there are up to five outer ramparts, probably representing several periods of construction, though their precise sequence and chronology are unknown. Elsewhere, traces of a single outer rampart are visible around most of the circuit, and on the S a separate outwork appears to have taken in a lower terrace occupied by a single hut-circle. Trackways mount the slope obliquely through entrances on the N, E, S and W, and while three expose the righthand side of the visitor, that on the W exposes the lefthand side. The N entrance, where the sinous trackway is lined with stones, was also defended by a chevaux de frise, which seems to have acted in unison with the outermost ramparts to confined approaching traffic to the edge of a natural escarpment falling away to the E. The interior, at least part of which has been cultivated, is largely featureless, but a damp hollow on the NW is possibly a pond or cistern, and what may be an earlier cairn about 7m in diameter by 0.5m stands on the very summit.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3037
