Field Visit
Date December 1981
Event ID 1138488
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1138488
Green Cairn, Cairnton of Balbegno NO 633 722 NO67SW 1
This fort occupies the level summit of a knoll 150m S of Cairnton of Balbegno farmhouse. Oval on plan, it measures 50m by 18m within a heavily robbed vitrified wall which varies from 5.7m to 9m in thickness. The entrance is on the NE, while a gap on the SW is probably recent. A modern dyke, which fringes a terrace on the SW, may incorporate parts of an outwork noted in 1798, and on the NE the OS report the cropmarks of possible outworks protecting the entrance. The fort was partially excavated in 1973-4 (the trenches were not back-filled and are still visible) and three radiocarbon dates were obtained: burnt timber amongst collapsed wall material, 540 ± 90 bc; twigs beneath the wall collapse, 180 ± 100 bc; a post-hole in the interior, 390 ± 95 bc.
RCAHMS 1982, visited December 1981
(Chalmers 1887-1902, i, 178; Grierson 1932, 48-51; Wedderburn 1973;
DES, 1913, 4; DES, 1914, 41; Radiocarbon, 16, 1974, 348-9)
