Note
Date 1 June 2015 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044583
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044583
Cropmarks have revealed a small fortification situated on a low hillock immediately to the NW of Mains of Edzell steading. Only the NE half of the circuit is visible on the photographs, the rest lying within a deciduous plantation, but this exhibits three roughly concentric ditches. the projected arc of the innermost enclosing an area some 40m in diameter (0.12ha). Excavations in 1998, however, failed to locate this ditch on its projected line, though whether the result of plough truncation or by design is unclear. Nevertheless, the two outer ditches, which are set about 10m apart, enclose an oval area measuring some 70m from E to W by 50m transversely (0.27ha) and may well have formed a free-standing enclosure with at least two entrances, one on the NE and the other on the SE, though in both cases the gaps are slightly staggered to create an oblique axis, one to expose the visitor's left side and the other the right side. Radiocarbon dates from samples of what was thought to be in situ burning in both theses ditches fall in the period 800-200 BC. When allowance is made for the presence of an inner rampart, the interior extended to about 0.2ha and the scatter of features located in the excavation within the line of the innermost ditch included a palisade trench, both clay- and stone-lined pits, other pits, and post-holes.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3086
