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Note
Date 2 September 2014 - 25 October 2016
Event ID 1044842
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044842
The remains of a small fortification that once occupied the summit of Cairngryffe Hill was excavated in 1939 by Professor Gordon Childe (Childe 1941). The defences comprised two elements, namely a small inner walled enclosure, and an outer rampart, and probably represented two separate phases of construction. The inner enclosure was oval on plan and measured 22m from N to S by 20m transversely (0.04) within a wall at least 3m thick, with parts of its faces still standing up to 0.9m in height in five courses; the entrance was on the S. The outer rampart enclosed an area measuring 47m from N to S by 41m transversely (0.15ha) and comprised little more than a low bank of rubble about 3m in thickness, with an external kerb of upright slabs, many of which had fallen outwards and boulders. While Childe considered that this cannot have formed a substantial barrier, it may have been robbed to build the inner enclosure. Its entrance was also on the S, but had already been destroyed by the time of the excavation. Apart from a row of post-holes immediately to the rear of the inner wall on the ENE, and a possible drain extending beneath the wall on the SSE, no traces of any internal structures were uncovered. Apart from part of a stone ring found in the drain, quarrymen recovered; a Donside terret; a bronze object, possibly a lynch-pin; a hemispherical lead object; and a cannel coal ring.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 25 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1820
