Note
Date 20 December 2013 - 31 October 2016
Event ID 1045444
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045444
This promontory work has been re-occuppied for the site of a castle, with a stone wall rising vertically from the bottom of the innermost rock cut ditch, which itself measures at least 7.8m in breadth by over 3m in depth and cuts across the neck of the promontory to either side of a central causeway, from the head of a precipitous cleft on the SE to the cliff-edge on the NW. Whether this ditch has been adapted from the innermost defences of the earlier promontory fort is unclear, but along the NW margin of the promontory the stubs of at least four outer ramparts can be seen, each with an external ditch. With the exception of the innermost, which appears to be a counterscarp bank to the castle ditch, all these ramparts are heavily disturbed, to the point in the central sector immediately outside the entrance into the castle that they have been levelled. Where they re-emerge eastwards, swinging round the head of the cleft protecting the SE side of the promontory, only two ramparts and ditches can be seen, both giving the appearance that they are more substantial than any of those visible on the NW. The interior of the castle measures 88m in length from NE to SW by 25m transversely (0.16ha), the area immediately behind the wall being occupied by the footings of three buildings, but if any of the outer lines formed the inner rampart of the promontory fort its interior would have exceeded 0.2ha.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0232
