Note
Date 6 August 2014 - 16 November 2016
Event ID 1044763
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044763
This large fort is situated on Walls Hill, a long whale-backed ridge girt with cliffs along large sectors of its flanks. The defences are best preserved at the N end, where a single rampart spread about 5m in thickness and no more than 0.6m in height externally can be traced along the crest of the slope and onto the cliff-edges on the E and W respectively. Elsewhere little trace of it can be detected, though about 1837 Andros Crawfurd noted that at the southern end of the fort it stood 1.5m in height internally (Newall 1960, 6), presumably in the sector on the SW where the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Renfrewshire 1863, sheet 15.3) depicts its line along the lip of the relatively gentle and accessible slope, and in places there are numerous stones embedded in the crest of this scarp. The area enclosed is roughly pear-shaped on plan, measuring about 450m from N to S and tapering from a maximum of 200m at the northern end to a point on the S (7ha). Two entrances can be seen at the N end, lying roughly 40m E and W respectively of the point where a modern farm track cuts obliquely through the rampart, and in both cases a deep hollow drops away steeply down the slope. The eastern of these entrances was excavated by Newall in 1956 and sections were cut across the rampart to reveal a complex structure (Newall 1960). The post-holes of two successive round-houses were excavated to its rear, where there had also been medieval occupation.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 16 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1389
