Note
Date 15 December 2015 - 24 May 2016
Event ID 1045179
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045179
This fort is situated on the tip of the E spur of Barney Hill, exploiting the crag known as the Kae Heughs dropping away along the N flank. Between the crag on the N and quarries that have eaten into the E end, and at least two ramparts and possibly three or four on the W and S respectively, the interior is roughly pear-shaped on plan, measuring about 140m from E to W and contracting from 72m on the W to no more than 30m on the lip of the quarry on the E (0.84ha). The inner and middle ramparts traverse the spine of the spur from the crags on the N some 18m apart, but on the SW they close up to swing round the S flank, where, with the addition of a third rampart and possibly a fourth, they form a more impressive belt of defences in excess of 35m deep. The third rampart, however, takes a rather different line on the W, cutting straight across the spur and on the S resting on what is probably a largely natural scarp which has been incorporated into the rampart along the foot of the slope on the S. Now grass-grown, all the ramparts are reduced to grass-grown rubble banks and in some places the irregular quarry ditches between them appear as little more than ragged pits. Two entrances are visible, one piercing the three wide-spaced ramparts on the W, at which the gaps are slightly staggered to expose the visitor's right side, and the other mounting the slope obliquely on the SW to expose the visitor's left side; the third rampart at the latter returns around the terminal of the ditch on the E side of the gap. The interior is rough and uneven, the only features visible being traces of an internal quarry behind the inner rampart on the ESE and a shallow scoop, possibly the stance of a round-house, adjacent to a later quarry a little NW of the centre.
In addition to these defensive works, there are also traces of another bank and ditch on the crest of the spur a further 50m to the W, but while this appears to turn back eastwards, and thus might be considered some form of annexe, it might equally belong to the outlying system of presumably agricultural boundaries focused on the site of the fort which has been revealed by cropmarks on the southern slopes of the hill.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 24 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3874
