Field Visit
Date 2008
Event ID 1116817
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1116817
NC37SE 1 3509 7149.
This fort (CWTC08 363) is situated on Eilean nan Caorach (Sheep Island), a low-lying but prominent craggy limestone ridge, which measures 480m from WNW to ESE by 150m transversely and stands some 11m above the isthmus that connects it with much higher ground to the SSW. Precipitous cliffs at the ESE end and low-lying bare rock at the WNW end suggest that the inhabitable area of the ridge could not have been larger than 280m by 90m. Access to the ridge from the isthmus has been restricted by a wall which runs along the southern crest of the ridge for a distance of about 80m, linking steep, natural slopes at either end. This wall measures some 2m in thickness and up to 0.7m in height over inner and outer boulder wall-faces and a rubble core. It has been damaged in several places by bombs or shells. An entrance through the wall, some 25m from its WSW end, measures 1.9m in width. It is serviced by a narrow track, some 30m in length, which obliquely ascends the natural slope from the isthmus and is revetted by a low stone wall on its lower side.
The interior of the fort, which appears to be naturally characterised by a number of low exposures of bedrock and a thin covering of peaty soil, has been devastated by bombs and shells (one bomb crater measures up to 16m across and over 3m in depth) and there are no visible features that may be contemporary with the wall.
Several structures have been recorded within the fort. There is a hut (CWTC08 56), which lies 16m E of the entrance to the fort, its S side overlying the remains of the fort wall. Roughly circular on plan, it measures up to 2.8m in diameter within a rubble wall 1.2m in thickness and up to 0.5m in height, with an entrance on the WNW. Elsewhere, there are the grass-grown footings of three subrectangular huts (CWTC08 141-3). One (CWTC08 142) has been used as the site for a more recent construction (now ruined) which was built with a timber frame and clad with corrugated steel sheets. The remaining features within the interior are the burnt-out and rusting remains of at least eight vehicles (CWTC08 376–83) that have been used as targets. Most have been damaged beyond recognition.
A roughly circular hut (CWTC08 291) is set into the foot of the slope below the S side of the fort, about 20m SW of the similar hut (CWTC08 56) overlying the fort wall on the crest of the slope above. It measures about 2.4m in diameter within a rubble wall 0.8m in thickness and 0.4m in height. Attached to its WNW side is an enclosure measuring about 3m square within a low rubble wall.
(CWTC08 56, 141–3, 291, 363)
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, JH) 10 August 2008.
