Note
Date 17 July 2014 - 23 May 2016
Event ID 1044745
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044745
The mound known as Montfode Mount forms the tip of a promontory formed where the Montfode Burn cuts through the edge of the raised beach and debouches into the sea a short distance to the SW. It currently stands in an open space within a housing estate, but aerial photographs taken in 1977, when the surrounding ground was still under arable, revealed two concentric ditches drawn in an arc across the promontory to the NW of the mound. The mound itself has been variously interpreted as a motte, the forerunner of the late 16th century tower-house 350m to the N, or possibly the remains of a late Iron Age dun, and these ploughed outer ditches are either the remains of an earlier promontory fort or the bailey of a medieval castle. The sides of the mound are apparently scarped and the oval summit, which measures about 24m from NW to SE by 18m transversely, stands about 2.5m above the general surface of the promontory and up to 8m above the bottom of the burn gully on the E. Nothing can be seen of the ditch up to 9m broad and 2m deep which encircled the mound, but it was located by excavation in two sectors on the NNW and SSE respectively (James 1986); sections were also excavated across the two ditches of the promontory enclosure on the NNW, showing that the inner was about 6m broad, and the outer about 3.5m, cutting off a wedge-shaped area measuring up to 60m from NW to SE by a maximum of 60m transversely (1.8ha). Whereas the excavations of 1985 were designed to establish the position and character of the ditches, further evaluation and excavation prior to development in 2002 and 2006 (Stronach 2002; Dutton and Stronach 2006) was carried out on the area outside the outer ditches to the NW. Nevertheless, these located the outer end of a palisaded entrance way, while elsewhere on the terrace of the raised beach there were also several hearths and clusters of post-holes, one of which was thought to be the remains of a round-house; Bronze Age pottery was recovered from two of the features.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1241
