Note

Date 22 July 2015 - 18 May 2016

Event ID 1044854

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044854

Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland

The construction of this settlement above Ericstane has harnessed a series of natural channels on the N bank of the Braefoot Linn to create what is in effect a bivallate fortification, though as they appear today most of the features of the defences are largely natural. The interior of the settlement is D shaped on plan, its chord formed by the rocky cleft of Braefoot Linn on the S, and measures about 66m from ESE to WNW by 40m transversely (0.23ha). The inner bank appears to be some 8m in thickness, but is probably largely a scarped natural bank capped by a stone wall 2.4m in thickness by 0.4m in height; a few outer facing-stones are visible on the W and ENE. The ditch outside it is likewise tailored from one of the natural channels on the N, but where it cuts across their grain on the W is up to 10m in breadth by 2m in depth. A further 10m outside it on this side a second ditch with an internal bank has been cut to link the lip of the Braefoot Linn gully to a second channel on the N, though there is little evidence of artificial works extending eastwards, either in the channel itself or the rib separating it from the inner ditch. Indeed, the only evidence of artificial work in the channels around the NE flank is a short arc of bank where a trackway approaching the entrance from the N crosses the inner; the entrance into the interior itself lies on the E, the arrangement of the trackway thus exposing the visitor's right side. The interior has been dug into the slope on the W and contains at least four house platforms, the largest of which is about 9.5m in diameter.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3211