Note
Date 20 August 2014 - 18 October 2016
Event ID 1044809
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044809
A complex series of ditched fortifications are revealed by cropmarks enclosing a low rise in the field due E of Carmuirs, representing at least four separate periods of construction, and probably more. The largest of the enclosures is roughly oval on plan, with a clearly defined entrance on the ESE, and measures about 90m from E to W by 65m transversely (0.45ha) within a ditch about 4m broad, though its line cannot be traced through the rough grass on the N (since ploughed up), nor in the diffuse cropmarkings on the S; allowing 5m for an internal rampart, its interior extends to about 0.34ha and represents the maximum area that has been enclosed here. Set concentrically about 8m within this ditch, and probably representing a separate phase of enclosure, is a slighter ditch little more than 2m broad, again probably with an entrance on the ESE, but also with a second on the SSW, and enclosing an area measuring 70m from E to W by 55m transversely (0.29ha). Cutting across the W half of the interior of the larger outer enclosure, and intersecting the line of the inner enclosure on both the NW and SW, is a double-ditched defence, the inner line of which measures about 4m in breadth and almost certainly picks up the line of the outer enclosure in the area of diffuse cropmarks on the S, to take in a roughly D-shaped area measuring about 60m from N to S along the chord by 60m transversely (0.28ha), again with its entrance on the ESE, where the slighter outer ditch is also visible. Traces of a concentric palisade trench can be seen immediately within the the inner of this pair of ditches on the SW, but in this sector there is also yet another ditch set immediately within what would have been the line of the rampart, and possibly also accompanied by an internal palisade trench, but apparently converging northwards to intersect the inner of the double ditches, and therefore representing a fourth phase of construction. Though clearly displaying a series of ditch intersections, the nature of the cropmark evidence rarely displays evidence that can be used to infer the sequence of construction; in this case, all that can be said is that the double-ditched fortification appears to represent a contraction of the larger single ditched fort. Several diffuse maculae and a faint mark forming an arc can be seen within the interior.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1591
