Note
Date 8 September 2015 - 18 October 2016
Event ID 1045256
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045256
This fort is situated on the summit of Chatto Craig, a commanding summit overlooking the valley of the Kale Water S of Chatto. The defences comprise two elements, namely an inner enclosure taking in the very summit, and a large outer enclosure extending round a lower terrace, but they are also overlain by two subsidiary enclosures on the W. The inner enclosure is oval on plan, and measures 43m from NNW to SSE by 32m transversely (0.13ha) within a rampart some 3.3m in thickness; several runs of outer face are visible on the ESE, SSE, SW and WNW respectively, and the entrance is on the NW. The outer defences follow the topography to form an irregular enclosure measuring internally about 105m from NW to SE by 80m transversely (0.6ha). Its rampart has been largely reduced to a scree of grass-grown rubble, but runs of outer facing-stones can be seen intermittently around its circuit, particularly on the SE, and some of the individual blocks are 1m long and 0.9m high; an outer rampart of similar construction can be seen looping round the S side, springing from the line of the main rampart on the SW and possibly returning on the E, though this latter sector was interpreted by RCAHMS investigators in 1948 as a reinforcing buttress to the main rampart. The entrance is on the NW, pierced by a hollowed trackway leading up to the entrance into the inner enclosure, where it is flanked by the remains of two low walls. This trackway, however, is also leading between what are probably two walled enclosures that overlie the outer rampart, and the walls flanking its inner end are probably butted against the inner rampart. While the RCAHMS investigators regarded the fort to be more probably early Medieval than Iron Age, comprising an inner citadel with an outer court, their reasoning, partly based on the incorporation of the outcrops into the defensive scheme, does not stand close scrutiny. The presence of these overlying enclosures is more likely to be a manifestation of a phase of late Iron Age settlement overlying earlier defences, a typical sequence in the region, and in any case there is no reason to assume either that the two elements are contemporary, or that the outer was not a free-standing fort. Notably, the only structure visible within either is a circular platform within the northern of these enclosures overlying the outer circuit; in this case the enclosure has been provided with an independent entrance driven through the earlier rampart on the WNW.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3405
