Archaeology Notes

Event ID 652783

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/652783

ND05NE 2.00 052 577

ND05NE 2.01 0522 5773 Cairn (Possible)

(ND 0528 5770) Supposed Remains of (NAT) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)

A fort occupies the N end of an eminence rising from the moor of Brawlbin, about 3/4 mile SSE of Shurrery church. It is an irregular oval on plan (q.v.), following the contour of the hill, except on the SW where a straight base crosses the ridge from side to side. It measures some 340ft N-S by a maximum of 300ft transversely within a stone wall some 6 to 7ft in thickness and 2ft high externally. An angle in the wall on the W suggests the position of an entrance, and a large slab protruding across the wall in the NE may indicate the position of another. The main entrance, however, appears to have been from the SE, immediately S of a large circular enclosure which abuts on the outer wall towards the S end of the E side. This entrance appears to have been 4 ft in width. The circular enclosure is entered from the E and measures 27ft by 32ft within a ruinous stone wall some 7 1/2ft thick. The interior of this enclosure has been excavated to a depth of several feet at the back so as to bring the floor to the level of the entrance on the lower slope of the hill.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.

This site has been adequately described by the RCAHMS. For most of its circuit the wall appears as a revetment against the scarp of the summit, although on the W side it appears as a rubble mass 0.3m high and about 1.6m thick. The scooped hut abutting on the SE side is apparently an integral part of the enclosure, as is probably the 'bee- hive' structure noted on ND05NE 2.1. The enclosure is not suggestive of a fortification but rather a settlement of uncertain period.

Visited by OS (J L D) 10 April 1962.

This structure, once known as Cnoc an Ratha, consists of a wall of slabs about 7ft thick surrounding an area of 300 by 230ft. The two entrances have the lining of slabs which is characteristic of hill-forts in the NE, and there is no reason to suppose that it is anything other than such a fort. A secondary circular enclosure measuring about 30ft in diameter formed by a now ruinous and grass-grown wall about 7ft thick impinges on the SE sector of the outer face of the fort wall.

R W Feachem 1963.

A hill-fort now largely destroyed by afforestation.

I Ralston 1975.

(ND 0525 5774) Enclosure (NR), (ND 0528 5770) Hut Circle (NR)

OS 6"map, (1963)

The wall and the whole of the interior of this enclosure have been deep ploughed and planted with conifers, so that in places the wall is barely traceable. Where best preserved in the SW it survives as a partially heather-covered rubble spread some 2.0m broad and 0.7m high on the external face.

The hut circle at ND 0528 5770, undisturbed by the forestry, is levelled into the slope, its interior 2.0m below the fort and 9.5m in diameter. The back-scarp attains an average height of 1.8m and the front scarp is 1.0m high. The entrance noted by the RCAHMS is no longer recognisable. Though the enclosure and hut circle are virtually abutting each other, the hut circle would appear to post-date the enclosure wall or be contemporary with it.

Although the wall cosntruction is broadly similar to the forts on Ben Freiceadain (ND05NE 18), Garrywhin (ND34SW 3), and other examples in Caithness, Cnoc an Ratha does not have a wholly defensive character about it; it lacks strength, both in position and in costruction, the wall not continuing to follow the contour on the S and creating an area of 'dead' ground on this side.

Revised at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (N K B) 15 September 1981.