Note

Date 21 October 2015 - 20 October 2016

Event ID 1044976

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044976

Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland

This fort or fortified settlement occupies a hillock on the NE flank of the White Meldon immediately above the improved fields of Upper Kidston. A rounded triangle on plan, it measures 70m from N to S by 58m transversely within a single rampart, which has been so heavily robbed that little more than a terrace cut back into the rock marks its course. RCAHMS investigators in 1958 suggested that this terrace had been cut to 'accommodate' the rampart, but it is essentially an internal quarry to provide the materials for its construction. The rocky interior rises to the summit of the hillock and contains traces of three house platforms, two cut at the back of the terrace on the N, and one on the E; the only other feature visible within the interior is a shallow rock-cut pit. The entrance is on the NW in the only sector where the rampart still forms a low mound. On the E the line of the rampart is overlain by one of a series of yards and courts that sprawl across the N flank of the hillock; presumably a settlement, its date is unknown. The investigators suggested that outlying linear banks and ditches on the N and W respectively may have provided additional protection, but in truth their dates and purposes are completely unknown.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3676