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Field Visit

Date 29 July 1913

Event ID 1114498

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1114498

Fort, Longfaugh.

On the summit of a slight eminence planted with trees, on gently rising ground about 500 yards west of Longfaugh Farm, and at an elevation of 800 feet above sea-level, is a roughly circular fort (Fig.102) surrounded by the remains of two earthen ramparts, the interior dimensions being on an average 275 feet from east to west and 250 feet from north to south. The inner rampart, rising in places 5 feet above the inner level, is raised on the edge of the scarp, which shows a height of 13 to 15 feet. The distance between the crests of the ramparts is on an average 57 feet at the north and 54 feet at the south. The outer rampart is entirely obliterated on the west, south, and northeast. Of the sections left on the east the most complete measures approximately 24 feet in breadth, 4 feet 6 inches in height on the inside, and 11 feet on the outside. In other parts, where a modern dyke has encroached, the outer rampart rises from 4 to 5 feet 6 inches above the interior and 6 to 8 feet above the field outside. For a distance of some 180 feet on the east the inner defence is quite destroyed, and opposite the southern extremity of this gap, where the outer rampart also shows a break, there may possibly have been an entrance. Some 65 feet to the south of this supposed entrance the outer rampart bifurcates, as shown on plan.

Twelve Roman bronze coins of the late emperors, which were said to have been found ‘in a Roman encampment on the estate of Crichton-dean’, were presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1785, and others are reported to have been picked up in the immediate vicinity. With regard to these finds, however, see Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., lii (1917-8), pp. 212-3 and 272. The 6-inch O.S. map also records the finding of a bronze patella at a site almost midway between Longfaugh and Crichton Dean.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 29 July 1913.

OS map: xv N.W.

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