Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Note
Date 3 June 2015 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044588
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044588
This promontory fort is situated on the cliffs NE of West Mains. A narrow finger of land girt with precipices along its flanks, the seaward end evidently spans a natural arch, while continuing erosion in a narrow crevice on the S side has constricted the neck still further. At the top of this crevice a rocky scarp cuts across the neck of the promontory and is crowned by the remains of the inner rampart, which varies between 0.3m in height at the cliff edge on the N to 1m on the S. The outer defences are disposed to either side of a central entrance causeway approaching from the W, two ditches with a medial rampart lying to the N and three ditches with intermediate ramparts on the S. The ditches are probably adapted from natural gullies, the broadest measuring some 6m across, while the ramparts are from 3m to 6m in thickness and stand between 1m and 3m high above the bottoms of the ditches. The interior measures a maximum of 110m in length from ESE to WNW by a maximum of 21m transversely, and though traces of buildings were reported here in 1843 (Cummings 1843), possibly on the assumption that this is the site of a medieval castle, they are not in evidence today, and the only features that are visible are the remains of a Home Guard lookout post at the extreme E tip of the promontory; this has been reduced to two rectangular hollows, each measuring about 8m in length by 5m in breadth.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3092
