Note
Date 5 October 2015 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044857
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044857
The heavily disturbed remains of a fort are visible in a small plantation that clothes a hillock that juts out from the hillside to the N of Oliver. Traditionally identified as the site of Oliver Castle (see RCAHMS 1967, 262-3, no.521), it appears to have been the site of a fermtoun before being planted with trees in the 19th century, but two ramparts can be discerned, both reduced to stony banks, the inner of which encloses a roughly circular area measuring about 65m in diameter (0.34ha). The outer rampart can be traced in an arc around the more vulnerable N flank, but it is uncertain whether it ever formed a complete circuit. There are several gaps in the circuit, notably on the NE and WNW, but without excavation it is impossible to determine whether either was an original entrance. Apart from the scoops and foundations of the later fermtoun that sprawl across the interior and the defences, there is a row three possible platforms for round-houses immediately to the rear of the inner rampart on the E.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3551
