Note
Date 22 May 2015 - 19 October 2016
Event ID 1044563
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044563
This fort stands on the summit of Dennon Law, which falls away steeply on all sides and particularly along the rocky SSE flank. Roughly trapezoidal on plan, it measures 105m from NE to SW along the SE side by 55m transversely (0.6ha) within a rampart reduced to a massive bank some 17m in thickness by up to 5m in height externally. In 2013 RCAHMS investigators proposed that this bank was the composite remains of several ramparts, suggesting that the outer face visible high up on the external scarp of the bank was possibly the remains of the latest, measuring about 6m in thickness and overlying an earlier and much thicker mound of debris. This hypothesis cannot be demonstrated without excavation, but there is no doubt that the crest of the rampart is also crowned by a later wall or bank, which not only encircles the whole interior, but has also been carried across the entrances on the NE and W. Below the entrance on the NE the approach rises obliquely through gaps in three outer ramparts to expose the left side of the visitor. These ramparts, each reduced to little more than a scarp, can be traced round the NE and NW flanks as far as the second entrance, beyond which only the upper apparently continues, taking in a lower terrace on a spur below the summit on the SW. At first sight an annexe to the fort, it has an entrance approached by a trackway on the SW and is possibly part of an earlier circuit enclosing the hilltop at a lower level, perhaps taking in as much as 1.2ha. The interior of the summit enclosure has been heavily quarried, presumably to provide the material for the ramparts, but it also contains the footings of at least two large rectangular buildings, which are not typical of those found in later townships and may be the remains of a medieval caput enclosed within the wall on the crest of the rampart.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3072
