Archaeology Notes

Event ID 661871

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/661871

NH64NE 37 6640 4910

(NH 6640 4910) Fort (NR)

OS 25" map, (1968).

A vitrified fort enclosing an area about 265.0m NE-SW by 115.0m on the rocky uneven summit of afforested Ord Hill. Except at the strengthened SW approach, vitrifaction can be seen intermittently around the whole periphery. The wall is mainly overgrown with turf and trees, but the base course of the outer wall face is visible in the ESE, and also in the W where one probable inner facing stone gives a wall thickness of 3.5m. For a distance of 80.0m in the E, the wall is not evident, but a terrace probably represents part of its course. The easiest approach in the SW is blocked by two curving walls of bare rubble stones, the outer spread to c.6.0m, and the inner to c.8.0m. No wall faces or vitrifaction are evident, and it is uncertain whether they are original or whether they represent a secondary defence. There are gaps at either end of these walls, which probably represent two entrances, but these are obscured by tumble in the case of the NE one, and by a forestry bank in the case of the other. The three alleged hut circles, each c. 10' in diameter, which were noted by Woodham (A A Woodham 1956) just inside the entrance, are fortuitous arrangements of tumble from the wall.

T Wallace 1921; R W Feachem 1963; Visited by OS (NKB) 10 December 1970.

Outside the double defence in the SW is a fragment of another overgrown wall which is probably part of an outwork giving further protection to this vulnerable quarter. It is not vitrified.

Visited by OS (AA), 16 April 1974.