Note
Date 27 May 2015 - 19 October 2016
Event ID 1044572
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044572
This fort is situated on the summit of Laws Hill, Drumsturdy. Heavily robbed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, subsequently about 1834 landscaped and planted with trees, and then subjected to a campaign of excavations by James Neish from the late 1850s (1859; 1864), the exact plan of the defences and their composition is difficult to discern on the ground, though the whole of the internal wall-face and entrance of the broch that was also disinterred within the interior is exposed. The scale of the defences is most easily appreciated on the E, where excavation has revealed two massive walls, the inner 9m in thickness by up to 1.5m in height and faced with large blocks and boulders, and the outer some 3m in thickness by 1.5m in height and diverging in its line towards the S. Elsewhere a band of stones extends along the margins of the summit, and a long run of inner wall-face is exposed on the W, but while these are assumed to be the remains of the outer and inner walls respectively, this cannot be demonstrated without excavation; indeed, if this is the case, the inner wall must be considerably thinner at the W end, where the distance from this inner face to the lip of the band of rubble is less than its overall thickness on the E. Nevertheless, extending some 12m beyond the band of rubble at the SW end traces of another wall can be seen, and all of the walls contain considerable quantities of vitrifaction. There are trackways leading up onto the summit on both the N and the S, but it is uncertain that either is original. According to the plan drawn up in 1859 by James Salmond, Neish seems to have traced out the line of the inner face of the inner wall further than is now visible, enclosing an area measuring about 120m from NE to SW by up to 45m transversely (0.45ha). In addition to the broch, which contained several layers of paving within its interior, Neish found numerous traces of other structures and evidence of occupation in the deeply stratified deposits within the interior. In addition to a double sided comb, a piece of lead, a spindle whorl, an iron pin, an iron 'buckle' and a crushed bronze armlet found within the broch (1864), two iron axes, an iron chain, an iron 'sword', a bronze spiral ring, a stone cup, and a bronze enamelled pin. According to Neish the inner wall at the E end 'was built upon rubbish' (1859, 442), implying that the defences may well represent several periods of construction.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3081
