Note
Date 20 December 2013 - 21 October 2016
Event ID 1045439
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045439
The southernmost tip of the Isle of Whithorn, which was still a tidal island at the beginning of the 19th century, is enclosed by an extensive set of fortifications, the outermost of which is a single wall, now reduced to a stony bank, cutting across on the seaward side of a narrow isthmus that divides the isle into two roughly equal portions. Resting on the outcrops that form this side of the isthmus, which on the SW rise into a cliff over 5m high, this is a natural position to place a rampart, which for a maximum of length of 95m cuts off an area of 1.6ha above the sea-washed rocks of the shoreline, and considerably more if these are included. The ground immediately behind this rampart forms an undulating terrace which has been cultivated in rigs, the plot measuring about 80m by 50m (0.3ha) and bounded by low lynchets on both the NE and the SW. The SE margin of this plot is marked by a 30m wide belt of three more ramparts, which isolate the flat-topped hillock that forms the seaward end of the promontory. The two outer ramparts and their external ditches cut across the promontory from shore to shore, apparently exploiting various ribs of outcrop and intervening gullies in an irregular but roughly concentric line; the central sector of the inner of these ditches is choked with loose stones. To the rear of them yet another ditch can be seen, which has been cut back into the flank of the hillock and seems to swing round its SW end inside the rocky boss known as the Watch Craig. Its central sector is also choked with loose stones, but in this case it seems to have partly collapsed from a rampart extending round the summit of the hillock. This rampart is seldom more than a stony scarp, but is a consistent feature all the way round the margin and encloses an area measuring about 80m from NE to SW by 30m transversely (0.23ha). A complete circuit of defences in a fort in this sort of position is unusual, but here there are also traces of rubble possibly belonging to the second rampart amongst the rocks at the foot of the slope on the southern, seaward, quarter. The position of the entrance is uncertain, one modern path approaching across the defences from the NW. A gap in the innermost rampart on the NE is more probably original, but it is not clear how an entrance way would have reached it through the outer defences.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 21 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0226
