Note
Date 16 February 2016 - 30 May 2016
Event ID 1045347
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045347
This fort, which occupies a position on the crest of Horsely Hill to the NW of Warlawbank, was intermittently under plough through the 19th century, but sufficient survived for James Hewat Craw to draw up a plan about 1912 showing a near complete circuit of two ramparts flanking a medial ditch, with an outer ditch and counterscarp bank where the ground rose gently towards the summit on the NE quarter. More recently cropmarks of the fort have also been recorded, revealing that the outer ditch was a continuous feature of the defences, while within the interior there are traces of a rather smaller enclosure. The fort is roughly oval on plan, measuring 125m from E to W by 77m transversely (0.77ha) within the inner of the two ditches, which are set about 4m apart around most of the circuit; the inner ditch is some 4m in breadth, and the outer 2.5m, increasing to 3.5m on the NE. Making allowance for the original thickness of the inner rampart, which is generally spread about 7m, the interior probably measured about 115m by a little over 65m (0.6ha). The ditches are pierced by major entrances on the ESE and WSW, while there may also be a narrow causeway across them both on the S; the WSW entrance is a simple gap about 3.5m wide, but the gap on the ESE is in the order of 10m wide, the cropmarks also revealing evidence of heavy traffic, and it is likely that the ramparts formerly returned and united around the terminals of the ditches to either side; all trace of this had been removed before Craw prepared his plan. The evidence of wear here extends into the oval enclosure occupying the eastern half of the fort's interior. It measures internally about 65m from ENE to WSW by 50m transversely, and its ditch, which is little more than 2m in breadth, is apparently broken by causeways on the ENE, SE and WSW respectively; an irregular maculae at the ENE end includes the outline of at least one round-house.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 30 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4107
