Note
Date 12 January 2016 - 21 October 2016
Event ID 1045067
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045067
This fort is situated on the sloping crest of the hill to the NW of Kirktonhill, where its SW spur drops down towards the Raughy Burn. The defences have been heavily degraded, partly through later agriculture, which has virtually obliterated them along the flanks, but also by the corner of a shelter belt planted over the E sector, while one later enclosure bank extends obliquely along the NW side, and another, at one time thought to be the perimeter of a Roman temporary camp (see Jones 2011, 171-2), traverses the NE end; several stone quarries have also been dug into the interior and a pentagonal turf-banked agricultural enclosure occupies the SW end. Usually described as oval on plan, this is partly the result of the degradation along its flanks, and aerial photographs and satellite imagery suggest that the line of the twin ramparts with a massive medial ditch visible on the NE swings rather wider down the E flank to create a deep re-entrant in a natural hollow on the S, which almost certainly marks the position of a major entrance, albeit that the details of its design are lost. Three ramparts, largely reduced to terraces, can also be traced round the SW end, set at the point where the underlying slope accelerates into the burn gully. Thus defined, the interior measures about 135m from NE to SW by up to 85m transversely, an area of about 0.82ha. Crossing its NE end, however, there are also traces of two or three low banks, which denote the presence of another defensive scheme taking in a smaller area, perhaps oval and extending to 0.55ha, though neither its full extent nor its precise relationship to the larger fort can be traced out by survey. On the E however, it is almost certainly overlain by a circular enclosure some 18m in internal diameter, which forms a shallow scoop on the E side of the interior and probably represents a late Iron Age settlement overlying the fort.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 21 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3937
