Field Visit
Date 29 May 1913
Event ID 1087322
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1087322
This earthen fort occupies the summit of a peninsular promontory jutting out from the northern slope of a hill running up to Rangely Kipp, at an elevation of 1000 feet above sea-level, on the north -east side of the Garvald and Johnscleuch Road, about 2 miles south-east of the former place, in the sharp angle formed by the Thorter Burn on the north and a short feeder on its left bank to the west. On all sides except at the narrow neck which joins it to the hill on the south, the sides of the promontory are steep, the fall to the Thorter Burn being as much as 130 feet. Oval in outline (fig. 71 [plan]) with main axis running north-west and south-east, the fort measures internally 233 feet in length and 180 feet in breadth. It is most strongly defended on the southern arc where it would be most easily assailed. Round the interior of the fort is a scarp (fig. 72 [section]) which on the east is 8 ½ feet in height, while on each side of the south-western entrance are the remains of a slight rampart. Some 34 feet from the latter there is a rampart 22 feet in breadth at the base and rising 5 feet in height on the inside, which, starting from the slight slope on the south-west, swings round by the south to the east, whence it is continued as a terrace, with a scarp outside, some 10 feet broad and 12 feet lower than the top of the inner scarp, till it reaches the steep western slope. The next defence takes the form of a rampart 12 feet in breadth and rising I foot to 4 feet above the outside level to the south; it follows the plan of the inner defence in being continued along the north-eastern arc as a terrace, 7 feet in breadth and 12 feet lower than the last scarp. But, as it approaches the north, the rampart re-appears and is continued to the north-western slope. Between the ramparts opposite the narrow neck at the south a ditch has been dug 20 feet wide, 11 feet deep on the scarp and 5 ½ feet deep on the counterscarp. Some 12 feet from the outer rampart there is the appearance of an outer ditch, 12 feet wide and 1 foot deep, cut across the connecting neck of ground for a distance of 76 feet. At the western arc between the two inner scarps there is a slight terrace with perhaps two excavated circular hollows dugout of it. There are two entrances to the fort 10 to 12 feet wide which are carried through all the defences on the south-west and on the east. Some 9 feet inside the top of the inner scarp at the south is a circular earthen foundation, the internal diameter being 12 feet, the depth at the centre 9 inches, and the thickness of the wall 4 feet.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 29 May 1913.
