Note
Date 27 July 2015 - 19 October 2016
Event ID 1044881
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044881
This fort is situated on the hillock forming the summit of Castle Hill above Candybank, where the ground falls away steeply on the S and W, but shelves more gently around the NE quarter. At first sight, the defences on the S comprise three concentric ramparts enclosing an oval interior measuring 85m from E to W by 56m transversely. The outermost, however, which has been almost ploughed out around the other three-quarters of the circuit, can be seen on aerial photographs taken under snow by RCAHMS in the winter of 1991 swinging much wider round the N side of the fort, where it may also be accompanied by an external ditch. While this outer enclosure might be construed as an annexe to the inner fort, it is as likely to be the remains of an earlier enclosure measuring about 130m from E to W by 120m transversely (1.5ha). Where best preserved the inner rampart forms a stony bank 7.3m in thickness by up to 2m in height externally, but elsewhere both it and the medial rampart, and indeed the rampart of the earlier enclosure, are reduced to scarps. Apart from some relatively recent quarry-pits, extensive evidence of internal quarrying can be seen to the rear of the innermost rampart around the whole circuit, but it is likely that the inner and middle ramparts also have external ditches. The entrance is on the ESE, where a slight stagger in the gaps in the ramparts has created an oblique approach that exposes the visitor's right side. The stances of at least six timber round-houses can be seen within the SE half of the interior, their remains including well-defined levelled platforms and more fugitive traces of grooves. In the best-defined of the platforms, cut back into the rock immediately up from the internal quarry scoop behind the rampart on the S, what is probably the foundation trench for the wall can be seen extending round the floor of the platform.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3226
