Note
Date 21 May 2015 - 1 November 2016
Event ID 1044562
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044562
First investigated in 1865 by Andrew Jervise (1866), excavations at the Hurly Hawkin 1958-68 (Taylor 1982) uncovered evidence of a complex sequence of settlement in which both a broch and a souterrain had been constructed over the remains of an earlier promontory fortification. The NE sector of the broch wall was built over the remains of an upcast clay rampart derived from the inner of two ditches cutting across the neck of the steep-sided promontory on the N, the inner 6.5m by 2.5m, and the outer 5.1m by 1.7m, broad and deep respectively. Towards the W the ditches appeared to coalesce into one, and while the excavator presented this as a contemporary feature of the defences, it might equally indicate that the ditches themselves represent several periods of construction; the inner ditch was subsequently adapted as the construction trench for a souterrain. No measurements of the interior of this earlier promontory enclosure are recorded in the published report, but from the 1st edition OS 25-inch map they may be estimated at about 50m from E to W immediately to the rear of the rampart by 45m transversely (0.14ha). The interior sloped from N to S and evidence of earlier occupation was recorded beneath the broch, including an arc of close-set posts in a bank of clay with a projected diameter of 15m and evidence of internal paving; this is likely to have been a large timber round-house rather than a free-standing enclosure, though whether associated with the promontory fortification is unknown.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 01 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3070
