Field Visit
Date 6 September 1999
Event ID 553145
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/553145
Without question this is one of the most spectacular forts in Scotland. The summit of the hill lies at a height of 563m OD, rising up from the south-west end of a whale-backed ridge above Rhynie, and the view from the top commands a huge sweep of north-east of Scotland. On a clear day the North Sea can be seen to the east, while the southern shore of the Moray Firth lies to the north, its far coast extending into the distance to Sutherland and Caithness.
The fort itself comprises two main components, one represented by the massive vitrified wall around the summit, and the other by a stone rampart set much farther down the slope. The vitrified wall, which encloses an area measuring about 85m from north-west to south-east by 30m transversely, now forms a mound of rubble at least 15m thick, although it has evidently been quarried for stone internally at a more recent date. Despite the quarrying, the rubble is piled up between 2m and 3m above the level of the interior, but its external scarp forms an even more impressive feature, with a talus of debris spread up to 30m down the slope. At various points around the circuit substantial masses of vitrifaction can also be seen, in part exposed by the quarrying, but demonstrating that the wall was constructed with an internal timber framework and destroyed in a massive conflagration. No entrance is visible and the present access, which can be seen in a 19th-century illustration of the fort (Hibbert 1857), rides over the debris at the south-east end. Two low banks with a medial ditch cut across the south-east end of the interior, presumably indicating the presence of an earlier enclosure on the summit. The only other features visible within the interior are a possible well or cistern, and what may be traces of a large round-house.
The outer fort is defended by a single rampart, though this has been largely wrecked by stone-robbing, and in some places, particularly on the steepest slopes above Rhynie, its line is barely perceptible. Ten gaps in the rampart can be identified, mainly around the northern half of the circuit, though not all are original entrances. Nevertheless, several short lengths of trackway within the interior are probably ancient, servicing the clusters of small circular house-platforms that pockmark its surface.
Visited by RCAHMS (SPH, JRS, IP) 6 September 1999.
