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Field Visit
Date June 1979
Event ID 1166625
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1166625
NR 389 648. This fort stands on a prominent isolated ridge 490m SSW of Kilmeny farmhouse; like others in the vicinity, the ridge is aligned NE-SW, with rock faces forming much of the SE side and SW end, and rises about 19m above the adjacent rough pasture.
The defences comprise a wall (A on the RCAHMS published plan), built round the perimeter of the summit, and three ramparts (B-D on RCAHMS plan) ranged in tiers down the NW side and the two ends. Wall A encloses an area measuring 34m by 17m; it has been heavily robbed and, except for a few outer facing-stones, little can be seen. Along the SE side, however, there is a thin spread of stony debris, and at one point where the core material is exposed, it consists of rubble and soil and indicates that the wall was originally a substantial structure. The entrance is on the ENE, and the interior has been under cultivation at some stone enclosure probably associated with recent field boundaries which overlie the fort in several places.
The three ramparts and their two quarry-ditches are best preserved where they cut across the sw end of the ridge. Set some 3m below the level of the summit, rampart B has been reduced to a terrace 5m wide, with its forward edge formed by a scarp falling 3.3m to the inner ditch, which is 1.7m deep. A narrow berm separates the inner ditch from rampart C, which stands 1.1m high internally and 3.2m above the bottom of the outer ditch. Rampart D appears never to have been as large as the other two, and there is no sign of a ditch outside it; it rises 2.1m above the outer ditch but only 0.5m externally. Along the NW side and round the NE end, the ramparts have been reduced or levelled, and the ditches largely filled, by ploughing. The entrances through ramparts B and C are situated on the N and NNE respectively. The steepness of the SE flank of the ridge rendered unnecessary any defence other than that provided by wall A.
RCAHMS 1984, visited June 1979.
