Note
Date 21 October 2015 - 18 October 2016
Event ID 1045003
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045003
This fort is situated on the Castle Knowe, one of several local summits on the ridge above Cardrona, and now lies in a clearing in an extensive coniferous forest. The defences comprise two widely-spaced stone walls, one forming an inner enclosure on the very summit, and the other an outer enclosure following a shoulder lower down the slope. The inner enclosure is trapezoidal on plan and heavily robbed to build the wall of the sheepfold that probably roughly replicates its shape, so much so that little more than a band of rubble survives along the SSW, and a scree of rubble on the NNE. The featureless interior measures about 49m from E to W by 33m transversely (0.13ha) and there is a probable entrance on the WSW, lining up with one of two entrances through the outer wall. The latter is much better preserved, though along the NNE side it forms a single scree of rubble with the inner wall. Elsewhere around the southern half of the circuit, however, it forms a mound of rubble some 6m in thickness by 1.2m in height, and where the debris has been cleared away the outer face has been revealed over a considerable distance, still standing up to 0.6m high in up to five courses. The interior of this outer enclosure is oval on plan and considerably larger than the inner, measuring up to 100m from E to W by 65m transversely (0.53ha). Its entrances lie on the SSE and WSW, the latter apparently approached obliquely to expose the visitor's right side. There are also traces of what appears as a third line, now reduced to low stony banks, lying a further 10m to 15m beyond the outer wall, but a series of returns suggest that these are later enclosures utilising the earlier defences. While there is no stratigraphy to demonstrate the relationship between the inner and outer enclosures, it is likely that the outer has been a free-standing fortification.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3678
