Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Note

Date 8 October 2014 - 23 May 2016

Event ID 1045678

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045678

A complex series walls variously enclose the summit of this promontory and a lower terrace on the NW, and cut off the landward approach from the W, As such it may represent several separate periods and schemes of defence. At its core are the remains of the small enclosure on the summit, which measures no more than 25m from NNE to SSW by 20m transversely (0.05ha) within a denuded wall reduced to little more than a thin band of rubble with occasional outer-facing stones. Two outer walls extend along the lips of lower terraces stepping down on the NE flank, the lower swinging round to the W, possibly to utilise the leading edge of another terrace at the foot of the NW flank of the promontory before returning to the foot of the cliff forming the W side of the summit; as such it forms an annexe enclosing a further 0.19ha. The entrance to the innermost enclosure approaches through the annexe and up the NE flank of the summit, where an additional length of wall has been inserted parallel to the annexe wall to create a walled entrance way some 22m in length, though if this is what was intended it is unclear how access to the the entrance through the middle wall was gained. Entrance from the exterior into the annexe was via gap in the wall on the W, where there is also a gap in a slighter outer wall which cuts off access to the whole promontory on the landward side. Two structures are built into the innermost wall and the annexe wall respectively, in the case of the latter impeding the use of the entrance into the annexe on the W, are probably the result of later occupation; In addition there are a series of other later pens and huts, including a long rectangular structure in the annexe that the RCAHMS investigators speculated was a boat shelter.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2185

People and Organisations

References