Note
Date 11 February 2016 - 21 October 2016
Event ID 1045338
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045338
This fort is the south-eastern of a pair of forts (see Atlas No.4094) set on a promontory in the shallow saddle between the two summits of Tun Law, which along its NE flank falls away virtually sheer to the sea about 150m below. In the final stages of a complex sequence the defences here were linked to the neighbouring fort on the NW, but as originally built the two forts were discrete entities, the defences of the south-eastern drawn in an arc across the S and W approaches. Like its neighbour, the defences of the initial fort here probably comprised twin ramparts with a medial ditch, which cut off the relatively shallow summit of the promontory, an area measuring about 65m from ESE to WNW by 35m transversely (0.22ha). The interior is featureless and the entrance is on the W. At some stage, presumably when the defences of the SE fort were derelict, the counterscarp rampart outside the entrance was demolished and the outer rampart of the NW fort was reconstructed in a spur that adopts the line of the counterscarp adjacent to cliff-edge. Subsequently the defences of the SE fort seem to have been refurbished and the demolished counterscarp rampart was rebuilt on a new line that butts onto the reconstructed spur rampart of the NW fort; Gordon Childe, who cut a section across the defences of this fort in 1931, also explored this junction, but without conclusively demonstrating the probable stratigraphic relationship (1932, 178-9). A further modification of the defences saw the addition of a third rampart with an external ditch on an eccentric line and apparently butting onto the rebuilt counterscarp rampart outside the original entrance. As first constructed, this entrance was relatively simple, though the terminals of the rampart may have been staggered slightly to either side of the gap, but with the successive modifications of the defences, the gaps in the outer ramparts were staggered eastwards to create a long oblique approach to the inner entrance exposing the visitor's right side. Finds from the excavations were limited to a few sherds of coarse pottery and animal bones (Childe 1932).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 21 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4095
