Note
Date 21 September 2015 - 17 August 2016
Event ID 1045311
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045311
A spectacular fort occupies the summit of Sundhope Kipp, a spur which rises sharply southwards above a saddle linking it to the higher ground on the NE. Roughly oval on plan, the defences have been tailored to the topography, following the lip of the slope from which the ground falls away sharply some 150m into the valley on the E, S and W, and comprising at least two ramparts around the greater part of the circuit and a further two with external ditches and a counterscarp bank barring the easiest line of approach from the NNW. The inner two ramparts are reduced for the most part to scarps, the outer the faintest of features on the steep slope around the southern half, but on the NNE and NNW, where they follow the lip of the summit and a natural terrace stepping down the slope below, they form thick grass-grown banks, the inner turning outwards to either side of the entrance on the ENE as if originally uniting with the second rampart to either side of the passageway. On the N the second rampart is fronted by a ditch dug some way down the slope below, immediately beyond which the third and fourth ramparts form concentric arcs with external ditches descending into the saddle on this side. In all the belt of defences is 50m deep on this side, though this includes a space up to 20m broad between the innermost and second ramaprt. At the ENE entrance, the track approaches from the N below the outer ramparts, exposing the visitor's right side, but at a second break on the NW, if original, it is the left side that is exposed; in 1985 Roger Mercer suggested there was possibly also a third entrance at the S tip of the fort. The interior of the fort, which measures about 82m from NNW to SSE by 50m transversely (0.3ha), is packed with traces of at least twenty-four inter-cutting timber round-houses, representing several periods of occupation and mainly comprising low tumps encircled by shallow grooves and ditches with low external banks; in six cases there is no more than a shallow groove to define the stance and Mercer's survey of 1985 suggested that these were earlier than those with broader ring-ditches. The projected circuits of two grooves on the W are truncated by the reduction of the rampart to its present eroded line, though whether they are earlier or later cannot be determined without excavation, but several of the ring-ditch houses elsewhere appear to impinge on the inner rampart and are likely to post-date its dereliction. Whether this indicates that some of the outer defences represent a free-standing fortification constructed after innermost rampart had been abandoned, as suggested by Mercer, cannot be demonstrated. A rectangular building lying immediately to the rear of the second rampart on the N, however, and another two in the ditch at the rear of the third rampart are presumably later shielings.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 17 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3481
