Archaeology Notes

Event ID 661508

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/661508

NH55SW 4 5394 5328

(NH 5394 5328) David's Fort {NR}

[Undated] OS map.

The origin of the name 'David's Fort' is unknown.

Name Book 1876.

Homestead Moat, David's Fort, Conon: Of characteristic trapezoid plan it is formed on a minor eminence, the interior standing a few feet above the surrounding ground. It measures 83ft from N-S by 85 to 105ft transversely within a wet ditch, approx. 15ft deep. Internally the only feature visible was a circular depression 25ft in diameter and 3ft in depth situated close to the margin halfway along the west side. The ditch is surrounded by the remains of a substantial bank standing up to 9ft in height and to 3ft above the ground outside. The west sector, only 2ft high, is cut by a depression about 5ft wide outside which a hollow track leads off west down the slope. The gap & depression may represent the place where a wooden bridge originally spanned the moat.

A J Beaton 1885; Information from R W Feachem (Mss notes) 2 July 1958.

David's Fort is a homestead moat covered with scrub and trees. The moat still contains water, but it is partially filled with debris in the south. It was originally fed by a waterway running from an artificially constructed pond, 100.0m east of the site to a cut in the bank at the NE corner. Another cut through this outer bank in the NW was most probably the original entrance. The purpose of the break in the outer bank in the S corner of the moat could not be ascertained. The 'circular depression' in the interior, mentioned by Feachem, has apparently been made by an uprooted tree, now lying in the moat.

Re-surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (N K B), 22 January 1965.

Moated site: David’s Fort, Balavil Wood. This site lies 1km WSW of Balavil House. A trapezoidal area measuring 25m from N to S by between 26m and 32m transversely is enclosed by an impressive wet ditch and an external bank. On the W there are traces of what may have been a bridge spanning the ditch. June 1979

Beaton 1883; MS. notes in NMRS, RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands; RCAHMS 1979.

This site is listed in an Atlas of Scottish History (McNeill and MacQueen 1996) as a moated site.

Information from RCAHMS (DE) September 1997