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Field Visit
Date 26 June 1913
Event ID 1087746
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1087746
About 5/8 of a mile south-west of the previous fort, and near the western end of the Blackcastle Hill, at an elevation of 900 feet above sea level, is a fort sub-oval in plan (fig. 96), being wider towards the eastern end. The main axis is northeast and south-west, and internally it measures 170 feet in length by 150 feet across the centre. The fort is placed on the gentle western slope of the hill, the ground falling gradually to the north-west and to the south-west for a short distance, when it drops sharply for 400 feet. It is defended by a single rampart of earth, 11 feet broad for the greater part of its circumference, but broadening to a width of 17 feet on the south-west, near the centre of which is an entrance 7 feet wide. Inside the rampart is a ditch 6 feet broad and 9 inches deep, the soil from which has apparently been used in making the rampart, which rises at most about 2 feet above the bottom of the ditch. Outside the lower or western arc of the fort, at a distance of 22 feet from the wall, are four short mounds,15 feet broad, with a trench outside each, 7 feet broad and 1 ½ feet deep. These mounds are 1 ½ feet high on the inside and rise 4 feet above the bottom of the trenches. The eastern is 34 feet in length and the others are 58 feet,17 feet and 30 feet respectively, while they are20 feet, 25 feet and 44 feet apart, the northern end of the third being in line with the southern side of the entrance to the fort. Within the fort, to the south of the entrance, is a hut circle,20 feet in diameter internally and Ii feet deep, showing several large stones in the wall, which is 3 feet broad. The entrance, which is to the south-east, is 3 feet in width. Running along the eastern flank, 18 feet distant from the wall, is an excavated curved hollow some 42feet in length, 12 feet in breadth, and about9 inches in depth, which has been entered from the south. About 20 feet from the inner end there seems to have been a partition thrown out from the western side of the hollow, and there is slight evidence of a hut circle having existed between the entrance to this hollow and the hut circle near the entrance.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 26 June 1913.
