Note
Date 12 October 2015 - 16 August 2016
Event ID 1044911
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044911
This fort is situated on the SSW end of a ridge formed where a glacial meltwater channel has cut down through the W spur of Vane Law. A elongated triangle on plan, it measures internally some 240m in length and tapers southwards from 70m in breadth at the NNE end (1.4ha). The defences comprise a single wall 3m in thickness which can be followed along the W flank, forming a scree of rubble with occasional runs of the outer face visible; towards the NNE end a single run of inner face can also be seen. The wall seems to have returned along the lip of a steep natural scarp at the NNE end, but no trace of it is visible along the lip of the meltwater channel on the E. An entrance midway along the W side opens into a deeply eroded hollow, and there is possibly a second entrance in the middle of the NNE end, though RCAHMS investigators in 1956 were of the opinion that this may been created to facilitate the cultivation of the NE end of the interior. Why they believed this end had been cultivated is not clear, other than traces of house platforms are only visible on the upper slopes, contrasting with the way they are disposed across the SW end. In all, the plan drawn up in 1956 shows no fewer than twenty-eight platforms, five of which have traces of a groove extending around the uphill side, and while the OS subsequently identified only fifteen, there can be no doubt that the interior has been densely occupied. The only other feature visible within the interior is a stone-walled sheepfold formed out of the southern tip of the defences.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 16 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3620
