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Note

Date 23 February 2014 - 16 November 2016

Event ID 1044731

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044731

This fort is situated on the elongated crest of Auld Hill above Portencross, a naturally strong position that was utilised in the medieval period for the successive construction of motte and bailey and stone castles. The defences of the earlier fort comprise a single vitrified rampart, traces of which can be seen in places along the margins of the hill and probably enclosed an area measuring about 110m from NW to SE by up to 28m transversely (0.28ha), though nothing of it can be seen around the NW end and its exact course on the SE is also uncertain. In 1987 the rampart was sectioned as part of a wider programme of excavation on the castle. It was about 3m in thickness, with both vitrified and fire-reddened stones in ‘laid rafts of packed dry stonework with each raft terraced into a level platform cut into the bedrock’ (Caldwell et al 1998, 25). Though the rampart was sampled for TL dating, the fort is effectively undated. Nevertheless, part of an antler cheek-piece from horse harness found in a pit in the interior dates from the 7th-8th centuries BC, and a possible cooking-pit filled with burnt stones was also found beneath the medieval deposits. While the excavators speculate that the cheek-piece derives from the occupation of the fort, they also found what may be another early line of defence, a ditch some 2m in breadth by 1m in depth, cutting across the interior of the fort beneath the castle. Its stony fill was thought to have slipped from a drystone rampart enclosing the rocky boss forming the highest part of the interior, and now completely obscured by the remains of the castle. This they suggest might provide a context for the occupation material containing worked shale from the 7th-10th centuries AD, and indeed for the stray find of a bronze enamelled trumpet brooch of 1st-2nd century AD date on the flank of the hill.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 16 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0488

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