Note
Date 1 July 2014 - 25 November 2016
Event ID 1045627
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045627
This fort, which crowns the summit of Castle O'er Hill, displays evidence of at least two major phases of fortification and has a large annexe on its SE side. In its first phase it was an irregular oval on plan, measuring a maximum of 125m from ENE to WSW by 60m transversely (0.6ha) within twin ramparts with a medial ditch, which have been deployed to enhance the natural topography, particularly on the precipitous SE flank, where the inner rampart follows the crest of the slope, and the ditch and outer rampart the foot, and even the apparently natural sectors of the escarpment between them have probably been modified and steepened. In its second phase, the core of the interior was reduced to an area measuring about 105m from ENE to WSW by 52m transversely (0.4ha) within a single rampart, though the earlier defences at the WSW end were also adapted to form a hornwork around the entrance; there is no evidence of a similar embellishment of the second entrance at the ENE end, but this has been mutilated by the construction of stances for later round-houses, and indeed more recent stone-robbing. No fewer than 29 round-house stances can be seen within the interior, some represented by levelled platforms, others by ring-grooves, in one of the latter comprising no less than three concentric lines. Some of these stances intercut and represent a sequence of occupation, while the platforms apparently overlying the ramparts at the ENE end suggest a final phase of open settlement. The annexe is probably an addition to the fort, enclosing an area of 0.5ha within twin banks with a medial ditch up to 6m in breadth; while an entrance has been left between the annexe and the fort defences at the WSW end, on the ENE its inner bank appears to ride up onto the outer rampart of the phase 1 fort. In plan, it is clearly conceived in conjunction with the linear earthworks that run up to the fort from the N and E, while an evaluation trench dug about 1985 by Roger Mercer demonstrated that a third linear earthwork on the S was constructed after the annexe. Five radiocarbon dates from this and other trenches relate to occupation and use of the fort and annexe during the Roman Iron Age.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 25 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1103
