Field Visit

Date May 2019

Event ID 1108727

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1108727

HES East Lomond Archaeological Survey

This multivallate fort and annexe occupies the summit and SE flank of East Lomond (434m OD), a volcanic plug that rises from the eastern end of the Lomond Hills, commanding extensive views in all directions. On the summit lies a small pear-shaped enclosure, with at least three further banks traceable on the steep rocky flanks, each of which is accompanied by evidence for quarrying. Geophysical survey and excavation have shown that the annexe, an enclosed terrace on the SE, was also utilised in prehistory, the whole comprising a complex site with a long history.

The summit enclosure (I on the plan) measures about 60m from NW to SE by 34m at the widest point (0.14 ha) within a grass-grown spread of stone up to 7m thick and 1.2m in height. This bank is best preserved on the NW, the remaining sectors being affected to varying degrees by collapse, stone-robbing and erosion by footpaths. No entrance is visible, but the interior contains the remains of a large prehistoric cairn surmounted by a viewfinder (NO20NW 144), shallow quarries, and two relatively modern pits.

A second line of defence (II), now comprising a grass-grown stony bank reduced to little more than a terrace up to 8m thick and 0.6m high, encloses a pear-shaped area measuring 90m from NW to SE by 60m transversely (0.41ha). It is not clear what relationship this line of defence has to the innermost. No entrance is visible, and the features that are visible between the first and second lines of defence are limited to quarries and a pit.

A third line of defence (III) encloses an irregular area measuring 125m from WNW to ESE by up to 100m transversely (1ha) within a grass-grown, largely stone-free bank up to 7m thick and 0.8m high. There is an entrance on the ENE, which is mutilated by a modern path and measures 2m in width. To the S of this the bank climbs the hill and may overlie the inner bank (II); beyond this, the bank cannot be traced across the steeper S flank. There is no evidence for the ‘line of approach’ identified in 1933 on the SW, or a series of four scarps below (cf. RCAHMS 1933, 144, Fig. 286). Running between the second and third lines of defence on the N flank of the hill is a gently arcing heather- and grass-grown bank and ditch that overlies the second defence at its S end.

The most striking feature of East Lomond’s defences is a dog-legged outwork, ‘a ravelin, which would not disgrace a modern engineer’ (Miller 1857, 33), which marks a fourth line (IV) on the S flank. This comprises a grass-grown bank, measuring up to 3m thick and 1.1m in high, and an external V-shaped ditch up to 7m broad and up to about 0.7m deep, which run for at least 165m along the SW and S flank before terminating at what may mark one side of an entrance. Some 13m to the E, what is probably the continuation of this bank can be traced as a scarp for about 50m, stopping as the slopes on the E flank of the hill steepen; there is no surface evidence that this feature continued around the E and N flanks of the hill (contra RCAHMS 1933, Fig. 286). Two ‘lines of terracing’ (RCAHMS 1933, 143) or ‘extra defences’ (OS 1968) which lie further downslope, some 140m ENE of the summit, are identified here as post-medieval trackways related to the quarrying of scree (NO20NW 148).

First mentioned by R Dickson (OS 1968) and lying outside this fourth line of defence on the SE flank of the hill, there is an annexe that measures about 150m from NW to SE by 120m transversely (1.1ha). It is bounded on the NE, SE and SW by the intermittent remains of a wall (V) reduced to a scarp about 2m in thickness and 0.8m high. It may be that this wall once abutted the fourth line of defence (IV), although the ditch of the latter feature may have been recut, creating some ambiguity in this relationship. There is an entrance on the SE at a point where a probably natural gully extends on to the terrace. A hollow trackway runs along the gulley and extends towards the possible entrance in the fourth defence. The hollow trackway continues outside the annexe for at least 80m to the SE. No other features are visible in the interior, but a rectangular enclosure of unknown date and function is recorded on a vertical aerial photograph taken in 1946 (106G/Scot/UK/0051, 4403).

Led by Dr Oliver O’Grady and Joe Fitzpatrick, excavations within the terrace annexe since 2014 have revealed a Bronze Age burial and evidence of occupation and industrial activity from the 1st century BC to the 7th century AD (DES 2016, 83; 2017, 95), demonstrating the importance of the fort on East Lomond, which is comparable in its size and the complexity of its defences to the other well-known forts in Fife at Clatchard Craig (NO21NW 18) and Norman’s Law (NO32SW 22).

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (ATW, LB, AM) May 2019.