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Note
Date 15 July 2015 - 19 October 2016
Event ID 1044994
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044994
The remains of this fort are situated on the summit formed by the SW spur of Dunearn Hill, its defences comprising two main elements, namely a circular enclosure on the summit, and an earlier oval enclosure taking in the whole of the crest of the spur. The circular enclosure on the summit measures about 32m in diameter (0.08ha) within its wall and probably has an entrance on the E. The wall, which has been a substantial structure, is spread about 4m in thickness and has long runs of outer-facing-stones around its S flank and intermittently elsewhere on the E and N. The enclosure is set astride the interior of the earlier fort a little W of its centre, though the link between the two ends is not particularly clear on the plan drawn up by RCAHMS investigators in 1952 and the relationship between the two ends might prove more complex on excavation. Nevertheless, assuming that the two ends belong to the same defensive scheme, the interior of the earlier fort measures 120m from E to W by a maximum of 44m in breadth at the W end, its eastern portion tapering from 33m in breadth to 16m at the E end (0.39ha). Its defences comprise two ramparts, the inner following a sinuous line along the margin of the summit area of the hill, and the outer, which can be traced around the N, E and S flanks, an irregular course along terraces on the slopes below. A trackway which mounts the slope obliquely on the SE, piercing both ramparts, is probably an original entrance and exposes the visitor's right side. Little of the faces of either of these two ramparts can be seen, but at the entrance through the outer the face turns inwards on either side of the gap. Other gaps in the defences at the E end are probably more recent. Apart from an old observation post and a circular enclosure around a flagstaff overlying the W side of the circular summit enclosure, the interior is featureless. On a terrace on the NW, however, probably overlying the outer rampart of the fort, there is a contiguous row of at least three hut-circles; the OS surveyor revising the depiction in 1974 claimed to find a fourth.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3181
