Note
Date 30 September 2015 - 25 October 2016
Event ID 1045053
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045053
The fort at Torwoodlee, which is better known for the broch overlying its defences (Curle 1892), is situated on a gently sloping position on the E spur of Mains Hill, and while the approach from the W is relatively level, the ground falls away more steeply around the rest of the circuit. The defences are best preserved on the W and N, comprising at least two ramparts and ditches, the outer accompanied by a counterscarp bank, but they have been heavily distorted by stone-robbing, cultivation and tree planting, and little more than the line of the outer rampart can be followed through the improved fields in the S sector; the only trace of an entrance is a gap on the ENE. Oval on plan, the interior is probably rather smaller than the dimensions given by RCAHMS investigators, which appear to have conflated the inner and medial circuits at various points, and measures about 125m from N to S by a little over 100m transversely (c.1.1ha). Apart from the foundation of the broch, nothing is visible within the interior, the southern third of which has been subjected to shallow surface quarrying. Excavations in 1891 (Curle 1892) and 1950 (Piggott 1951) conclusively demonstrated that the broch was occupied in the Roman Iron Age, and that its wall overlies the inner rampart of the fort; the ditch encircling the broch is also cut through the inner rampart and recuts a segment of the inner fort ditch (Piggott 1951). Where the inner rampart was sectioned it measured about 3m in thickness and was composed of stones and yellow clay, and was fronted by a V-cut ditch was at least 4m in breadth by 2.5m in depth; there were traces of shallow quarrying to its rear. The medial rampart was entirely robbed out opposite the broch, but a section on the N revealed three courses of its outer face. Apart from a ring of post-holes probably associated with a timber round-house predating the broch, little trace of any occupation was recorded in a series of trenches excavated on the W side of the fort interior. Finds relating to this earlier occupation are limited to a few sherds of coarse pottery and a rotary quern from low down in the fill of the inner ditch, though one pit containing Roman pottery predated the construction of the broch and Roman finds were recovered from the core of its wall. The interior of the broch produced a rich assemblage of material, including a bronze terret and an enamelled stud, and a fragment of a glass armlet, while Roman goods include sherds of Samian, coarse wares and amphorae, and fragments of green and amber coloured glass (See Piggott 1951, 110-13). Amongst the mass of tumbled stones filling the ditch of the broch a rough cist containing the inhumation of a woman was discovered.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 25 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3542
